I, Divergent
by ImMyOwnDefender
Summary: In Erudite, I was in danger, in Candor I was in danger, but what about anywhere else? Would I be safe in Dauntless or Abnegation? I know one thing...the day will come when they eventually find out about me. And when they do it'll turn into a problem. An Erudite should know how to get out of a problem by thinking fast, too bad I'm not just Erudite. I'm a 4 out 5...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: The Choice**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy, but I do own my characters and whatever OCs I create. Eva Zedler and the following OCs are mine. And just to make things more clear this takes place during Four's and Eric's transfer year into Dauntless. Also please be nice, I'm open to suggestions, this is my first time posting a Divergent fanfic so I'm a bit rusty since I hadn't posted up anything new in a while due to college classes, and I had some issues with my laptop and writer's block, so don't be too mean please.**

I was trapped and needed a way out. While my life was not perfect, it had it's own problems; but I was fortunate, to be given this perfect gift of family. My father, who was a successful scientist working under Jeanine Matthews, my mom was a school teacher, my older brother worked in the Erudite archives, and my sister and I were two smart Erudite students on our way to improving society…if we choose to stay in our own faction.

And honestly I would have stayed in Erudite if I really wanted to if only for one reason.

"Zeke Pedrad." One of the test administrators called a dauntless boy in for him to take his aptitude test.

For him it was just a test, but for me it was everything. It meant a way out. It didn't matter which faction I chose. I would even choose Abnegation, anything but to stay in Erudite.

"Eric Matheson."

The names being called, turned to a rushing blurred murmur, I didn't hear the name coming after that or the one after that.

The next one is a girl's name.

A boy's name.

Another boy's name.

A girl's name.

I feel my hands clutching the hem of my dark blue dress. My palms are sweating.

For me this was agonizing.

"Evangeline Zedler.

It takes me a moment to realize that that's my name, I get up and walk over to the room where my name came from.

It's bright orange, and there's a chair in the middle of it. There was a surly looking brawny man standing at the table. He was dressed in a muscled black tank top, with some tattoos on his back, and shoulder blades.

He looked really built, and when he turned around the face matched the body. He had a firm sculpted square jaw, sprinkled with morning stubble and a hint of 5 o clock shadow. He had short dark buzz cut hair, and chilly dark eyes.

Dauntless, was what he screamed.

"Well are you gonna sit down or stand there," he snapped. This only made him look intimidating, and impatient, that I didn't waste anytime and took my seat.

"I'm Ryder, I'll be your test administrator," he said, and I just nodded at him and reached out to shake his hand. He gave mine a hard shake and motioned to the chair, "Sit down."

He scoffed, "Never met a Noser that was so talkative," he said sarcastically as he attached two electrodes to my temples.

Noser was the slur for Erudite. Sort of like how Stiff was for Abnegation. The only difference being was that people liked Erudite.

Because of some antagonistic reports made by Erudite, Abnegation's popularity was decreasing, but that didn't mean there weren't those that didn't like Erudite. I know Candor wasn't too fond of us, and I know that Abnegation must hate us. Dauntless was alright with Erudite as far as I checked, and Amity just loved everybody.

I felt anger flare up in me, "Yeah well I never met such a quiet danger junky," I retorted.

He stared at me, his eyes raking mine then he threw his head back and laughed, a rough loud cackle, "And funny too," he snickered. Then he took a vile of liquid and handed it to me, "Bottom's up Noser."

I took the vile and downed some of it, soon closed my eyes and waited.

**Simulation**

I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing in a room with two baskets; one had cheese the other one a knife. I frown as I slowly make my over towards them, only to be surprised by a voice, "Choose."

I recognize it as Jeanine Matthews', having met her multiple times.

I looked between the two, and wonder what would be done with either one of them. What would I do with them?

"Choose." She commands again.

"What'll happen if I do," I asked.

"Choose!" She yells.

I scowl and look down at them again – a knife meant I'd be fighting right? But what would cheese mean? A distraction. The Erudite in me, is trying to process this logically.

"Have it your way then," she says making me look up then back down.

Much to my shock, both baskets are gone, and I hear growling coming from behind me. I froze as sweat broke out across me and goosebumps tickled my spine up and down.

I look over my shoulder and see a dog, baring its teeth at me and this made panic spread through me as I slowly turned my body to face it, "Easy," I whispered. My knees bent and I lifted my hands slightly, preparing for it to leap up at me.

I wouldn't take any chances. The dog approached growling louder – this made me think to what I knew about dogs. They lived by pack mentality and followed the alpha. You couldn't let them know you were afraid, then they would have the control. So I would stick to my guns.

"Come on," I spat at it angrily, and with hinted panic.

That was probably the adrenaline.

The dog snapped a bark at me, and leapt up at me, and I threw my arms around it, and punched it in the nose, out of reflex; that was another way to assert dominance, I had read – strike it in the nose. It fell back with a whine, and whimpered on the ground, while I stood mine firmly, waiting for it to get up and attack again. I watched it's pitiful form struggle to get back up, and tried to stifle the cold qualms of guilt that I felt.

This was only an animal.

The beast got up and whimpered, and I felt my resolve crack – it approached me, and I bent down and reached out to touch it cautiously. It nudged my hand with its snout, and I petted its head softly.

"There boy," I said quietly and it happily licked at my fingers, making me smile

"Puppy~!" A girl's voice squealed making me turn around to look at her. It was a girl in a white dress, jogging towards the dog. The mutt glanced at her and snapped its jaws at her, snarling.

Without thinking I bolted for the little girl before she could get to him, trying to stop her, and at the same time trying to outrun the dog, as its paws hit the floor.

It was trying to catch up to me, so I moved in front of the girl and lifted my arm up to cover myself.

The beast jumped forward and I felt its canines bit into my arm, making me shriek painfully.

The pain blinded me, and before I know it, it was gone in a flash. The scenery around me changed and I found myself moving.

It was a bus, and there was a man standing beside me – he was the only one I could see. No other people around, it looked like.

The man was reading a newspaper, and on the cover I could see a photo of another man on the cover. It was headlined, "Vicious Murderer Apprehended." He looked familiar, almost like I knew him, but I couldn't remember him. But it still felt like I should know him.

As if sensing my stare, he glanced over at me, and I saw that part of his face was burnt. It took everything in me not to shrink back from his outward appearance.

"You know this guy," he asked me gruffly in a dry rough voice.

I should know him, I told myself quietly, but I can't recall from where. "Well," he snapped at me, and drew back, "No," I answered quickly, "No I don't," I repeated. The man glared at me, "You're lying," he accused, "You know him," he pleaded, "Please if you do, you can help me," he grabbed my collar.

I pushed him off me, "I said I don't. I'm sorry if I don't. But I'm telling the truth," I said to him. "I wish I could help you but I can't."

**End of Simulation**

I was roused back into the conscious world and sat up in surprise, feeling cold sweat cling to my skin, beading against my brow.

My eyes skirted over to Ryder who was staring at me intently – his eyes looked darkened by in this unnatural bright lighting. "What?" I asked staring back at him in complete confusion. For an Erudite I must have missed something.

He stared at me for the longest time then looked back down at the small table where the machine was, and glowered quietly, "Of all the ones I had to be the one to get it," he grumbled angrily.

"What? Get what," I asked him sliding off the seat, "What happened? What was my result?"

His eyes shot up to my face, and I froze – they looked like a storm was raging in them, he really looked like a Dauntless now, "They were inconclusive," he answered gruffly.

Inconclusive? I felt a slight internal panic, "What do you mean? There had to be some result, there's no such thing as no answer," I said quickly in one breath.

Ryder glowered at me narrowing his eyes, "I didn't say you had no answer, I just said you had more than one result and that made it inconclusive," he lowered his voice. I frowned and shook my head, "That's not possible."

"It is. It just hardly ever happens," Ryder said in a hard edged voice.

"What did I get," I asked him in a small voice – hopefully anything but Erudite, I'd even take Candor.

"Erudite," he answered – oh please God no, I thought to myself. "Dauntless," I paused at that, feeling myself reeling in surprise and disbelief. "Abnegation," he said, and I felt my own eyes widen at that. "And Candor," my mouth fell open as he finished.

Four out of 5 factions, this was unreal, "How?" Was all I managed to get out.

Ryder cleared his throat, but sounded like a rough cough, "Instead of picking either the cheese or the knife, you didn't pick any of them, instead trying to think it through, that was the Erudite in you, but I had trouble discerning it, because that's also an Abnegation oriented logic too. You punched the dog, that showed Dauntless, and you punched it in the nose, that's Erudite oriented. But it was more Dauntless since you tried to establish dominance from what I could see," he said heavily, "Then with that girl, you ran to protect her that was either Abnegation or Dauntless, you got in front of her, that was an Abnegation move, you put your own arm in front of you so the dog could bite it, that was a Dauntless response. Protecting someone even if it's painful, and could mean your own death." His brows drew together, creating a crease in his brow, "So I changed the scenario, to that man on the bus. You lied to him, but were trying to be as honest as possible that's a Candor trait. You really didn't know him, and you faced the man head on. Still very Dauntless of you. And when you apologized for not being able to help but wishing you could. That was Abnegation-oriented. In short I can hardly tell with you," he sighed, "One response is motivated by 1, 2 or more faction backings," he rubbed his brow.

I was left reeling at this, "So….that means I have an aptitude for Erudite, Candor, Abnegation and Dauntless," I murmured, "Which one stood out more to you?"

Ryder gave me a hard glance making me go still, "Right now I'd have to say, that Dauntless and Erudite are taking the lead and tied in you, Abnegation is behind, and Candor is in last place. Your responses are more Dauntless and Erudite oriented, cause you're trying to think something through before acting."

I nodded slowly – aside from this shock I couldn't help but feel elated; at least I had some way out of Erudite.

But then just like that I remembered that there was a name for what I was…Divergent.

I remember Jeanine mentioning them once to my parents and talking about finding them out – and killing them…Ryder would have to tell them and then I'd be killed.

"I'm in danger aren't I?" I asked slowly closing my eyes. Ryder scanned my face, "Only if someone finds out," he said to me quietly, making me look up suspiciously.

"What do you-" I was about to say but was cut off, "I'm going to manually enter your result as Erudite," he answered, "But you need to watch it. You hear me?" He warned me wagging his finger at my face.

I exhaled a breath I didn't know I was holding in and nodded quickly, "Yes. I promise."

"Tell no one," Ryder warned in a low gruff rumble and I nodded again, "Not even to your own family friends or whatever. Understand?" I nodded and he pressed his palm to my back and lightly pushed me out of the room.

And I was alone, with the decision floating in my mind. From there I decided to walk back to my classes.

Part of me was relieved that they would be cut in half today, this would give me more time to think. I knew I had a decision to make, but at the same time left to ponder and absorb this new information given to me by Ryder.

Divergent….I am suitable for more than just 1 or even 2 factions. 4 out of 5 factions – I want to feel like I'm in a dream.

My life just got far more complicated…

_**Later that evening…**_

Dinner was quiet; all my family and I sat together and I'm staring at my plate, reminded of what Ryder told me this morning, _"You can't tell anyone. Not even your own family…"_

I clench my teeth together tightly hoping I don't grind them against each other

"So," I hear my father's voice speak up, "How was the aptitude test today?" He's talking to me, I remind myself, and curse myself for being an idiot and for being too obvious, "It was good," I answered with a little smile.

Dad nodded and went back to eating, "Good. Tomorrow will be a big day for you. Just remember that no matter what you choose you're still our daughter tomorrow," he assured me with a grin. Mom nods encouragingly and her bright smile almost seems blinding to me, and something in me tells, that he wants me to choose my own faction.

But could I do that?

In Erudite I'm only in danger – they're hunting for Divergents, could they hunt me down too? Would my parents turn me in to Jeanine?

"And you're still my parents," I murmur softly to them, mom and dad both smile, but if only they knew that I was saying this more to myself than to them. Alice, my younger sister looks at me and smiles, "And we're still sisters," she said with a soft smile.

I smile back at her, and nod, "Thanks Alice."

After dinner I excused myself from the table, and decided to go to bed early, while mulling over my decision. Would I stay here or leave mom and dad? They were already relieved that Grayson would be staying in Erudite when he made his decision.

But I'm not my brother. I'm nowhere near as smart or intelligent or clever as he is. I wouldn't fit into Erudite – my scores in school are enough to prove that, sure I score high, but not enough to meet my brother's scores.

And even Alice has shown far more potential than I could ever at her age.

I can't stay in Erudite. Anywhere but Erudite…

I comb my long dark sable hair, staring at my reflection, peering into my own pale murky green gray eyes, as though she has all the answers.

I've always been told that Divergents were dangerous, by my parents and by Jeanine – it was in one of the answers they gave me, when I came to them asking questions, since being an Erudite I was curious. When they said they were dangerous, I idly wondered if they looked like aliens, or like humans.

I never thought I'd get the answer by staring at my reflection – I was Divergent, and I still looked like me. Not some kind of subhuman abomination.

Shaking my head, I looked away from my own eyes, and went to go lie down, thinking over my decision once more. Erudite. Abnegation. Candor. Dauntless. These words slowly make my eyes heavy as I let them slip shut.

A shame they had no separate faction for the Divergents like me…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy or the characters in it, except for the OCs and mine, Eva Zedler, but the other original ones belong to Veronica Roth.**

My body was still heavy from sleep but my mind couldn't be more awake now – today was the day I would be deciding on whether to leave my family or not.

I didn't have much of an appetite this morning.

I just stared at my plate – I decided on toast and some orange juice. "Sweetheart you need to eat more than that." My mom commented as she sat down and sipped her coffee, "You nervous?" She asked me.

"A little," I answered quietly, "Kind of," I admitted looking embarrassed. My mom smiled down at me, "Darling you know what your father said is true, no matter what you choose we will still love you," she said to me sweetly.

I felt like doing a face palm – just when I thought I had strengthened my resolve, my mom had to go and say something like that. Almost like she knew what I would choose from the very beginning.

"Thanks. I love you too mom," I said lifting my head to look up at her.

At that moment, my dad walked in, "Are we all ready guys?" Dad smiled at mom and walked over to kiss her, which she gratefully returned.

I smile at the two, as Alice walks in, "Ew," she wrinkled her nose at the sight cutely.

I felt myself laugh quietly at that.

Our breakfast was over quickly, and soon we headed to the Choosing Ceremony; there we had run into Jeanine, "Hello Jeanine." My father said jovially and pleasantly, giving her a wave, while my mother was just quietly smiling.

Jeanine Mathews turned around and gave us a smile, "Hello Adam," she glanced at my mom, "Vera," she said with a thin smile.

My mom's lips lifted up slightly, "Jeanine. Nice to see you again."

The blond haired woman nodded, "Likewise. I see you brought your family," she looked over Alice and I, then smiled, "My god, they've grown up so quickly they almost look like twins. Whose turn will it be to choose this time?"

The look on her face was that of smugness – she expected that both Alice and I would choose our own faction.

I could tell by the look on her face already.

"Evangeline's turn," my mother smiled and touched my shoulder giving it a squeeze, making the gesture seem like a proud one.

Jeanine's cool eyes drift to me and I meet her gaze dead on, with my deep pale green gray murky ones.

"That's good. It's nice to meet you again Evangeline. You know your father talks about you all the time," Jeanine says with a friendly smile, that she almost has me fooled by her façade.

I force the corners of my lips to lift up in a guarded and shy smile, but I know myself. I'm only disguising my fear of this woman, "It's nice to see you again too, Miss Mathews," I say politely, and without stammering. "Thank you."

I'm an adult now. I shouldn't always have to be afraid.

Jeanine stares down at me, and I stare back, "How have you been," I ask cordially. She smiles even wider, "Oh I'm well, thank you. Busy as always," she said, "Since Norton died, I'm pretty much taking on more assignments you know."

Yes, I know you're taking on the assignment of starting a crusade against innocent people and inciting a witch hunt, I think to myself but mask my displeasure with an interested hum.

I smile despite my chagrin, "Yes, I imagine so. Mr. Norton couldn't have chosen a better representative," I indulge her. I wonder if she can tell if I'm being sincere or not.

She throws her head back and laughs – I flattered and amused her.

"Oh Adam, she's so much like you, such an eloquent way with words," she praises, "A true politician, and diplomat. We can have her as a council representative."

Her praises are nothing new to me, albeit flattering. Whenever she was invited over to our home, or we to hers, she always seemed to pay me compliments.

I get the feeling they weren't just out of kindness though – this isn't Amity.

"Thank you," I say, purely out of habit and politeness. I am reminded of just how dangerous this whole thing is, how dangerous the woman standing in front of me is. I grow silent on the rest of the walk to the location of the Choosing Ceremony.

We walked inside the assembly room and sit with the Erudite faction members, while the Abnegation follow in, looking meek and demure in their neutral gray plain clothing.

I instantly picture myself walking like that – head bowed down, looking submissive and always having to hold my tongue.

I guess the only aspect of my divergence that would let me into Abnegation is the part of me that is selfless.

Abnegation would have been my first choice, had it not been for the safe lifestyle.

I would be safe, living a plain routine life, knitting clothes for shelters, helping the factionless, making sure all the food gets sent to other factions before myself, and in the face of all that selflessness, I would be forced to endure not only a life with no necessities or luxuries but also a life of resentment and contempt.

And not being able to fighting back…

It was clear I would never make it in Abnegation.

I shake my head of these thoughts as loud murmuring fills the room, that is of course, Candor, dressed in their black and white clothes – I immediately rule Candor out in my head.

They value honesty, and I know that I'm more than capable of lying if circumstances call for it.

And I already know that Erudite is out of the question; its not that I don't love my faction or my family, I do. But my IQ, while higher than most people in other factions, including this one, is lower than some.

As well as it had already proven to be dangerous here, and what would happen if they found out what I was?

Staying here was no longer an option for me.

The room is crowded, and soon all of the representatives are standing in front of us, the leader from Abnegation, Marcus Eaton is present, as well as Jeanine herself, then Johanna Reyes, leader of Amity, Jack Kang, Candor leader, and finally Dauntless Leader Max.

Max speaks first, "Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony," he smiles. "Today you will choose your factions. Until this point you followed your parents' paths and rules. Today you will find your own path and make your own rules."

"Along time ago our ancestors that each of us each individual was responsible for the evil that exists in the world. But they didn't agree on exactly what that evil was."

I wonder if I'm evil for being Divergent. Am I the closest form of evil they would see if they all knew? Max's words make me feel like he knows – and for whatever reason his words strike a cord in me.

"Some say it was dishonesty. Some say ignorance. Some, aggression."

My eyes skirt over to the orange, yellow and red clothed faction members. Perhaps I have too much aggression to have gotten Amity for a test result.

My eyes drift to the clenched hands in my lap – I do blame ignorance, and I know they all do, but this is where I know I'm right. Where I know I'm wiser – they have no idea how hypocritical they are.

They don't understand anything.

"Some said selfishness was the cause."

The only time I would not act selfish was if I had to pick between my family and myself.

I would choose them before myself. I guess that would be the only time where my Abnegation would show.

"And the last group suggested that cowardice was to blame."

I don't want to be a coward – I don't want to be afraid of anything or anyone. I want to be braver and stronger than I am now and- I guess I just gave myself an answer. I find myself wondering if I can built a life here or perhaps one day be brave enough and dare to question what's beyond our security.

"That is how we came by our factions: Candor, Erudite, Amity, Abnegation and Dauntless. In them we administrators and teachers and counselors and leaders and protectors. In them we find out sense of belonging, our sense of community, and our lives."

Perhaps one day that would mean Divergents too, was my wishful thinking. It is soon time to choose as Max concludes his speech, "Enough of that. Let's get to it," and the names are called out.

"Zellner, Gregory." He chooses Amity.

"Rogers, Helena." She chooses Candor.

"Lena Parker."

A young dark red haired girl dressed in black, obviously from Dauntless gets up and begins to choose – cutting her palm she holds her hand over the Amity bowl.

"Amity."

The Amity faction cheer, while the Dauntless don't seem too thrilled.

Would my own faction ostracize me for not choosing them? Would my parents ostracize me too?

"Lovelace, Frederick." The Erudite all smirk when he chooses them.

"Erasmus, Anne," a meek Abnegation girl is called.

"Tobias Eaton."

That's Marcus's son.

Grayson and I both look to see a tall lanky boy with dark blue eyes and plain gray clothes, with auburn hair come up. I think I remember having Faction History with him.

He cuts his palm and holds it over a bowl, without hesitation.

"Dauntless."

"Kayla Manning."

A brunette girl from Candor gets up and goes to choose her faction. She chose Erudite.

"Erudite."

I glance down and see how most look smug about that.

"Sabrina Larson."

A beautiful looking auburn haired girl with wide baby blue eyes dressed in black comes up with a confident smirk, cuts her palm, and holds it over a bowl.

"Dauntless."

She chose her own faction, and she looks pleased with herself.

I envision myself picking my own faction. But would I be happy? Would I be safe? Erudite always know, so how long will it be until they find out?

"Evangeline Zedler."

It takes me a while to register that they just called out my name, but I feel my sister nudging me and I get up quickly and walk down and onto the stage to pick my faction.

I cut my palm and stare at the bowl.

Ryder was right; I follow my instincts, even when it means to save others or myself. Whether I am selfish or selfless, I do think through then go through with something. I refuse to be afraid. I'm brave.

I hold my hand over the Dauntless and watch as the blood trickles down.

"Dauntless."

I hear cheering and hoots behind me and turn around to go and sit with my new faction, purposely trying to avoid my parents' eyes or my sister's.

But I feel that this might be the last I see them, until a few weeks later when Visiting Day arrives. What if they don't come?

I look over my shoulder inconspicuously, and find the sight heartbreaking; my father is giving me an unreadable look, like he doesn't recognize me anymore, while my mother looks heartbroken, her eyes glassing over. My sister looks like I just shot her, and it goes from shock and pain to fury.

I bite my lip and force myself to look away. Would any of the Dauntless laugh at me if I cried right here?

Quietly I lift my head and try to find my brother in a sea of blue. Grayson is there and he glances at me, his eyes meet mine – we used to have the same color when we were younger. People would think we are twins.

But with time my eyes darkened. They're greener and grayer now.

Grayson stares at me and I stare right back, and to my surprise he starts to smile.

I don't even hear the other names being called out, because all I can see is my brother and feel his nonphysical comfort welling up inside me.

I hear a noise of outrage and see Marcus looking like he just had a heart attack, "Son." He yelled, but Tobias doesn't give him a second look. He probably didn't even hear him since the Dauntless' cheering is so loud.

Tobias goes and sits down two seats from me.

"Lauren Colton."

Another Dauntless born chooses her own faction.

"Ezekiel Pedrad."

He chooses Dauntless too.

Another Dauntless girl gets called up, but I don't pay attention.

"Eric Matheson."

A kid from Erudite with dirty dark blond hair comes up to the stage and slices his palm, and chooses Dauntless.

"Dauntless."

And that is it. The Choosing Ceremony is over just like that, and soon the factions all rise to get up and leave.

I get up with the Dauntless faction and follow after them, but quickly look over my shoulder to look at my family. Dad is still staring at me, while mom purses her lips together thinly as she looks into my eyes – and for a moment I think she knows about my Divergence. Alice looks hurt and I feel that hurt seeping into my heart. Grayson is the only one who looks like he accepts my decision, because he's smiling at me.

I force a smile, and mouth quietly, 'I love you.' Grayson nods and my mom manages a faint brief little smile, while my dad's look visibly softens. It is only Alice that now looks furious with me.

At least I was able to get some kind of silent forgiveness. And I can only hope that they can understand.

I'm led away with the crowd of Dauntless and I walk with the crowd up to where the train tracks are. Soon the train whizzes past me and I see others run alongside it, then grab the railing and jump on.

I find myself following their example and run as fast as I can, my lungs feel like they are about to burst so I push myself harder until I lift my hand up and grab the railing.

I try and swing in order to get on but that proves to be a difficult task, suddenly I feel a hand grab me and pull me up.

This made me look up to see who it was and I see a boy dressed in bright orange and yellow loose clothes from Amity. He has a stocky thick build, ashy blond short hair, a straight and rather hooked nose, a strong chin and jawline, wide mouth, and green eyes.

He looks surprisingly handsome in a different and unique sort of way. I let out a soft breath and nod at him, "Thanks," I breathed out.

"Not a problem," he smiled at me – I guess his Amity roots haven't left him yet. "I'm Martin." He introduced himself pleasantly.

"Evangeline," I said politely to him. No point in being reserved with the guy that helped you out. Martin nodded, "It's nice to meet you," he said genuinely. I nod and smile back a little, "Likewise. And thanks again for…you know, helping me up," I said quietly.

Martin nodded again, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you would have done the same for me," he laughed in a friendly manner.

I smile back and nod once, "Yeah, of course." I don't think about it – I would help him if he were in my place.

I looked around then glanced at the outside scenery passing us by, "Do you know where we're going," I ask him curiously. Just like him and his Amity roots, my Erudite roots haven't left me either.

He shakes his head, "No idea. Sorry." I shrug and poke my head out and see the Dauntless-born initiates jump out onto the roof, "They're jumping out," I say to him. Martin looks shocked, "Really? That's dangerous." I only look out, "We gotta do it too then." I sound determined – I have a feeling if I don't I'll wind up factionless.

Martin looks torn, then looks out and sees the other jump. I step back to gain momentum so I land on the rooftop without falling.

"Wait," Martin says suddenly making me pause, and look at him, "Yeah?" I ask.

He surprises me by taking my hand, "Together?" The look on his face is an embarrassed sheepish albeit hopeful one. I stare at him for a couple of seconds and nod, "Alright."

Martin steps back with me and soon we both break into a run, while still holding hands.

The wind whistles through my tied back hair, and I see the ground underneath me swirling, before I see gravel and then I land roughly in an ungraceful heap, with Martin still holding my hand.

Then it occurs to me that we didn't fall to our deaths and were now on the roof. We made it~

I sigh in relief, and glance at Martin who looks about as relieved as I do.

He catches my glance and soon we both smile at each other, then laugh a little, we're interrupted by a tumble and I see a Dauntless born girl land on the roof with her feet, with a grace I severely lack. Along with the confidence.

As soon as she lifts her head, I hold my breath – she's beautiful. Her eyes have eyeliner on them, and her skin looks flawless, her face looks diamond-shaped and oval like, with a few dimples, and soft baby blue eyes and warm full looking lips. She catches my stare and I feel embarrassed. She only smiles at me, and bounds over to us, "Nice jump. The first time I landed on my ass too," she laughs then offers a hand to Martin and I.

"Um hi," I say uncertainly and timidly. She grins at me, "Hey. I'm Bree." I suddenly recognize her, as the girl from Dauntless that chose her own faction, Sabrina. "I'm…Evangeline," I answer lowly.

I let her pull me up as Martin gratefully accepts her hand. "I'm Martin," he introduces himself with a friendly grin.

Bree laughs, "Long name," and I feel my face flush. "You know you can change it now right? Dauntless always have nicknames."

I nodded slowly then hear a thud and grunt, making me turn my head, it's the Abnegation boy, Bree walks over to him to help him to his feet.

"Damn and I was hoping we would get to scrape some Stiff pancake off the pavement later," some new jumper murmured under his breath – obviously a Dauntless born.

Bree shoots them a look

"You okay Stiff?" She asks him out of concern with that same smile, "Where were you by the way? I didn't see you with the other initiates."

Stiff looked down and mumbled something under his breath his face was flushed.

We suddenly heard more thumps on the roof, and turn to see the older Dauntless members jumping down. They must be instructors, I think to myself as I take note of how old they look.

"He jumped into the wrong cart," an older man in his mid 30s states – I take a closer look at him; he's handsome, with light brown hazel eyes, a slight 5 o'clock shadow, messy short dark brown hair, and broad and muscled build. The man's lips pull up into a smile, "He jumped into the cart with the instructors."

That explained why Stiff looked so embarrassed.

Bree let out a pretty laugh, throwing her head back, "Well, for a Stiff, you made it this far. Not bad," she praised.

"Yeah and I bet that's as far as he'll get," a new male voice said obnoxiously, making me turn to look at the owner.

It was an Erudite boy with dark blond brown hair, and sharp calculating eyes.

Bree snorted, "Oh yeah and who asked you?" I ducked my head and sighed. Abnegation was never the only one that got the bad rep.

The guy smirked at her, and opened his mouth to say something until someone interrupted him, "Welcome to Dauntless, where you either face your fears and try not to die in the process or leave a coward." The Dauntless man started to explain about the record of how many there were of us.

I looked around and see there were only 6 transfer initiates, and a cluster of Dauntless born.

"My name is Amar, and this is Ray," he gestured to the broad shouldered guy. "We'll be your transfer instructors. And the only way to get into Dauntless is to jump off this ledge," he said with a little smile, "And as usual I offer the opportunity to go first to our initiates. Dauntless born or not," he smirked.

We're all quiet, as I try to think – it would make sense to go first, and to jump. It's not like they want us dead, right?

Suddenly one of the Dauntless, a dark skinned boy steps up with a confident smirk, and cheers. "Go Zeke," one of the girls shouts to him. He steps up onto the ledge and jumps into the trench.

After him Bree grins and goes to follow, she cheers as she jumps down.

I can't help but chuckle. People here are kind of crazy but at least they're real pieces of work.

Suddenly the Erudite boy is forced to jump, because as Ray put it, due to his "Erudite curiosity." I fight back a smile then decide to go next.

I climb onto the ledge and look down – I feel a bit lightheaded but lean forward and jump anyways.

The air whistles and whirls around me, and the cold cuts through me as I fall into darkness, only to be caught and tangled in something wired and leathery. It's a net! I don't realize it but I start to laugh – of all the- I think I'll like it here~

Suddenly hands reach up and try to grab me and my eyes widen as I'm pulled from the net and scramble to get out of its binding hold. I lifted my head and my eyes meet clear pale crystalline blue, "Another Noser," a smooth voice rumbled with a chuckle.

The man standing in front of me was definitely handsome, with a mass of dark curly black hair, he looked younger than Ray, probably early 30s, and light blue eyes and thin specks of hair sprouting up on his upper lip, "Name, sweetheart," he grins at me.

"Evan-," I pause remembering what Bree told me – that I could change it. Become someone new.

I was Dauntless now.

"Is it a long one?" he asked me, "You can change it now, but just remember that it's going to stick," the man smirked at me.

"Eva," I hear myself say. He smiles at me, "Next jumper: Eva." I hear hoots and hollers, of my name and smile.

I look back up at the man, "I'm Pierce," he introduced himself, he grinned, "Welcome to Dauntless, little girl."

I scoff but in spite of myself I smile, deciding to ignore his little girl comment, "Thanks."

After all of us jumped down, Stiff was the last one to jump down – his face looked a bit green as he climbed off the net. An Amity girl walks up to him and says something about how fun that was.

Apparently he doesn't agree because of the look on his face.

I could hear 2 Candor boys in my transfer class poke fun at him, "He looks a bit green. I'm always looking forward to a show."

"Shut up," Stiff snaps at them darkly, and to my surprise they grow quiet – they must be just as surprised of having to be told off by a Stiff.

Amar then jumps down and rolls off the net, and walks towards us, Pierce is waiting for him. "For those of you who didn't hear me my name is Amar, and this is Pierce, we'll be your initiate instructors. Dauntless-born initiates will be training separately for the beginning half of the initiation."

Suddenly the burly broad shouldered man from before jumped down the one with the wild dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

Amar smiled, "This is Ray, he and Max will be training the Dauntless born initiates."

I stare at the guy Ray, then I glance over and see the dark skinned man with sharp dark eyes, who is obviously Max.

"Dauntless borns and transfers do most of the physical training separately, so that the Dauntless born initiates don't break the transfers in half right away…"

I blink and slowly glance at the Dauntless group, only to see them grinning – I feel myself sweat a little.

I can see Martin from the corner of my eye staring too.

"But we're trying something different this year," Pierce speaks up with a confident smile, dragging my attention back to him.

"The Dauntless leaders and we want to know if knowing your fears before you begin training will better prepare you for the rest of initiation," Amar continues, "So before we let you into the dining hall to have dinner we're going to do some self discovery. Follow us."

Zeke Pedrad a Dauntless born initiate speaks up, "What if I don't want to discover myself?"

Amar glances at him sharply – it's hard to believe that he can nice one moment and strict the next. I bite the inside of my cheek and follow the instructors along with the rest of the transfer group. "So what do you think?" I hear a feminine voice next to me and turn my head to see the Amity girl from before, who was addressing the Stiff.

It took me a second to register that she was talking to me cause she was giving me an expectant look, "About what?" I ask.

"The training and the physical stuff, think it'll be hard," she asks in an obvious manner.

I lift my shoulders, "It's Dauntless," I point out, "We just jumped out of a train." Of course it's going to be hard, I think to myself.

She laughs sweetly, "Good point. I'm Mia an you are?" I stare at her, she's pretty I suppose, then again Amity are always kind and beautiful, "Eva," I said shortly. I finally note why I didn't get Amity as a result. Their kindness tends to irritate me somewhat.

But it's not their fault – this only makes me wonder how a girl like this managed to choose an aggressive faction, when her own former one blames aggression itself.

Cruel irony, I think to myself sarcastically, or just a cosmic joke.

We are led through a tunnel and into a dank room with a giant window in the back wall, above us are fluorescent lights, and I can see Pierce's silhouette shuffle to a machine that looks like one that Ryder used on me during the aptitude test.

Call it Erudite curiosity or whatever but out of habit I look around the room and see a room beyond this one from the window and there are cameras on each corner.

Makes me wonder if they are everywhere.

"This is the fear landscape room," Pierce says and I can see him smiling under the lighting – under it, it gives him a more devilish glow.

"A fear landscape is a simulation where you confront your worst fears," Amar explains to us. The machine appears cruel and malevolent.

"That's impossible!" An Erudite boy, the one who was making fun of the Stiff spoke up, very loudly in fact. I didn't even notice him standing right next to me. Was he there the entire time?

"How is that possible, you don't know our worst fears," he said arrogantly.

Amar turns to stare at him, "It's Eric right?" The Erudite now known as Eric nods slowly as Amar continues, "You are correct. I don't know your worst fears, but the serum I am going to inject you with will stimulate the parts of your brain that process fear, and you will come up with the simulation obstacles yourself, so to speak. In this simulation, unlike in the aptitude test simulation, you will be aware that what you are seeing is not real. Meanwhile, I will be in this room, controlling the simulation, and I get to tell the program embedded in the simulation serum to move on to the next obstacle once your heart rate reaches a particular level – once you calm down, in other words, or face your fear in a significant way. When you run out of fears, the program will terminate and you will 'wake up' in that room again with a greater awareness of your own fears."

The whole time he speaks, I can feel my own eyes widening, "Wait hold on," I hear myself say quietly, now all eyes are on me, including Eric's.

I swallow quietly, as Amar stares at me, "Yes?" He beckons for me to continue.

"I'm sorry but….um, will our fears be….monitored? Like….public? Will others see them?"

Amar is smiling, but Pierce is the one that starts laughing, making my face flush brightly. I just hope no one can see that under this lighting.

I can hear Eric snorting next to me in amusement as he grins, "Why got something to hide?" He winks at me.

This only makes my face heat up even more.

I feel like I just opened a can of worms…and asked a stupid question all at the same time.

"Well that you'll just have to see," Amar smirked at me, probably because he was able to see my own discomfort.

"Now then," Amar smirked then glanced at Eric, "Allow me to satisfy your Erudite curiosity," he motioned for Eric, "You get to go first."

Now it's my turn to grin. Eric pales slightly, "But-"

Pierce cuts him off, "But we are your initiation instructors, and it is in your best interest right now to do as he says," he said smoothly. Amar is standing behind him and nodding at the statement.

Eric opens his mouth for protest, and I feel vindication swell up in, "Unless _you_ got something to hide," I taunt this time. Eric's eyes land on me giving me a dark look.

He looked ready to commit murder. I only smirk in response. I hear snickers behind me, and find myself grinning slightly.

We're led to the other side and face the window, watching what Eric is about to do, the heart monitor is there too so we can see if the serum is working or not. Amar begins attaching the electrodes to his head then injects the serum into his neck. We all watch him, and I see Eric's face change slowly – he's staring right at us, but it looks as though he's seeing something else. My curiosity peaks and I wonder what it is, he's seeing.

What is he afraid of?

"What's going on? Is the serum working?" Mia asks. I stare in wonder and slight anxiety, "Yeah," I whisper absently, "Looks like it."

Eric breathes in deeply then exhales, his chest rising and falling drastically, as he breathes out of his nose. His body starts to shake, shivering almost like the ground is quaking with him. His breaths are slow and even, while his muscles clench, his body tenses then relaxes, but he's not screaming, like I thought he would. He's actually remained quiet throughout this whole time. That should definitely earn him some Dauntless bravery points.

The heart monitor beeps, then relaxes as the first fear passes through him, then the second, as Amar taps on it, so it can progress.

That's three fears now.

Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. They all flicker through his face, like a ripple in the water being caused by some greater or unseen force. That's ten now. Eleven. Twelve.

Amar taps the screen one final time and soon the simulation is over, and Eric blinks, and then slowly smirks at us through the window. It only took him a few minutes, for someone who's got 12 fears.

I wonder what they all are? Must be a lot of phobias to have in one human mind.

It's quiet around me as I glance at Bree, and the Dauntless born seeing that they're quiet too. They look impressed. I skirt my eyes over to my fellow initiates and see that they're interested too.

But the Stiff's face looks different, almost dark.

And I begin to understand why. This Eric is someone to watch out for. He might just beat me out, or any one of us. He is capably of being a threat.

"Now then," Pierce's smooth voice leers at us, "Who wants to go next?"

They are all quiet, and I take the opportunity to glance at Eric who's getting the electrodes pulled off of him.

In order to prove I'm Dauntless material I have to be brave. I wasn't the first jumper like Zeke was. Or the second like Bree, I was fourth.

"I do," I hear the words tumble out of my mouth as my voice takes on a stronger and louder tone, that I never realized I had…. "I want to go next."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy; they belong to Veronica Roth. But I do own Eva, and Bree. And this next chapter was a bit challenging for me to write out since I tried to work hard on Eva's fears so if you like you can just disregard it. The real fun starts after the simulation and in the next chapter, so my apologies in advance. Oh and also look for more of my other upcoming fanfics please, and I hope you do enjoy them but I'm still continuing on this one with great vigor.**

All eyes were on me as I spoke the words that would without a doubt earn me a ticket to insanity. Pierce smirked, "Alright then, let's go little girl," he said and led me to the adjoining room. On the walk there I felt stupid – I had no idea what I was getting into and now I'm probably going to make a fool out of myself. But that's where my thoughts stopped and took a twist in a different direction; this was a simulation, then wouldn't I realize it because of my Divergence and somehow give myself away?

Well, it's official I just signed my own death warrant…

I made it this far only to end up at my own execution – I haven't even gotten that far in Dauntless, and now because of my own pride I was going to end up dead.

"Come here young one," Amar said gesturing to me as I entered the room.

I passed by Eric who gave me a leer. He snickered smugly at me – he could probably tell I was scared, "You look a little sick there. We'll understand if you wet yourself or throw up," he taunted me, making me clench my hand into a tight fist.

Stubborn resolve flooded into my mind, and swelled through my chest. I had to overcome this. With this resolve in mind, I quietly and mutely approached the place where the electrodes were, but not before chancing a glance at the window.

They were all watching me now. What would they see?

Would they see me turning pale like Eric and try to overcome my fears bravely? Or would they see me breaking down and crying? Or screaming? Or as Eric said, peeing myself? Would I get sick and throw up?

I jumped when I felt the coldness of the metal electrodes press against my head and then a needle went into my skin. I looked up and the last thing I could see were Amar's eyes looking down at me before he faded.

_**Fear Simulation**_

I felt my eyes twitch slightly as I opened them and saw I was lying on a cold hard ground. I frown and slowly sit up, but am resting on my elbows. It looks dark, and from what I can see. I'm surrounded by 4 walls, with no doors or windows. They look particularly small, almost like I'm trapped in a cube or a box.

I'm not claustrophobic, so which fear would this be?

That's when I hear it. _Hisssss! _A low hissing sound echoed by others and then I feel the ground moving below making me jump and scoot back. Snakes! I go still, and try to suppress the shudder of revulsion and fear that courses through me.

They're all looking at me sticking their tongues out, and slithering closer to me, and I back away further. I feel one of the crawling onto my leg and I give a small shriek and kick it off me.

They seem to grow angrier and volatile at that. I scoot until my back hits the wall.

I'm trapped now. I can't get out. They crawl on me and I shudder and try to push them off me.

But soon they crawl on me and I can't move, they've trapped my legs by coiling around them and I'm powerless, and scared. They twist around me and then one snake rears its head closer to me, and I shake again, "..."

"Please," I plead, I'm not even sure if I'm pleading to them or pleading in the hopes that someone will hear me and save me.

But why would someone come and help me when I-….I'm alone. I'm…not really here. This isn't real. I remember now where I am. This isn't real, this is just a simulation, I think to myself. I'm at the Dauntless compound and there are others watching me from a window. The other initiates are there with the Amar and Pierce.

But then….if they're all watching me…if Amar is watching me…he'll see I'm Divergent through this simulation won't he? If I'm aware that I'm under a simulation, then that'll only give me away right?

How am I supposed to do this? I have to think. I need to solve this the way an Erudite would. Logically.

This isn't real and these snakes aren't really here but I need to think of something now. I close my eyes, but I can still feel them coiling around my body making me gasp. I force my eyes open and stare at them. What are some ways to get rid of snakes?

Or at least keep them from killing you?

I think I'm supposed to grab its neck or the part of its body that works its jaws. No, that's not it. May I'm supposed to relax my body and let it know that I'm not afraid and just be perfectly still.

I close my eyes and force my body to go limp and relax, by breathing in air into my body to help me. I feel them crawling on me, one crawls from under my arm and slithers back down to the ground – I think it's working.

One by one they start to crawl either over me or under my loose limbs while I keep still.

The one that is on me, at a biting distance, slowly slithers up my body and onto my chest and torso, I suppress another shudder then slides past my neck and onto my shoulder. It feels all coiled and loose, and smells rank and foul.

Soon the snakes start to slither off of me, save for the one on my shoulder; it slides down my arm as its tail curls behind it, and finally it gets to the ground as I let it slide off me.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in. The last final snake slides over my leg and to the other side, and finally they're off of me.

I relax my stiff joints and let out a deep breath. That's just one of my fears. What could be next?

Slowly I force myself to my feet, and look around these walls. Why isn't the simulation fading into something else?

I take a few bold steps forward and then on my next step, my whole foot sinks into the floor, and I feel cold liquid seep in through my clothes, I jump and let a slight shriek. How did the floor just become water? I look up only see no more walls, except now it looks more like a swamp, and there's fog everywhere. I'm standing in water up to my waist.

What sort of fear is this?

Where am I? Holy hell, it's humid. I wonder if I'm afraid of drowning? No that's ridiculous – I know how to swim perfectly well. So my fear isn't water or fear of drowning.

This place actually looks like a swamp.

Just as I'm about to take my first step, I feel a sharp but numbing pain in my arm, that makes me gasp. I lift it and my eyes widen, "A leech," I said in surprise.

There is a leech on my arm and I feel disgust coiling in my stomach – I remember a lesson about them in class when we were studying parasites once in the science classes.

Our teacher showed us a video documentary on them and it freaked me out ever since. But that was 5 years ago, and I was only 11.

Great, looks like my fear subconsciously manifested itself.

I try to swipe it off me, but it stubbornly clings on, I can feel it sucking on the skin and it hurts. I grimace and try to remove it, by grabbing it with my fingers and prying it off.

It lets me go and I throw it away – disgusting. That was just absolutely disgusting.

I try to move through the water but it seemed heavy and harder to navigate through and as I raised my arms I felt more stings and sores around my legs and arms. There were more of them! Damned leeches!

I gave a short shriek and tried to swipe them off my arm but it was no use, they appeared in greater numbers on my other arms! God they were everywhere!

I felt the stings and pains all around my body…I had to figure some way out of this!

I waded in the water trying to move, I almost went under and felt the sting on my cheek and swiped a leech off of my cheek. I couldn't think of any way to get rid of them, and they just kept sticking to my body.

I tried in vain to get them off of me in a frantic attempt.

It was then I looked down at the murky dark swamp water and tried to see my own reflection of some thing down below the water to help me get rid of them. This couldn't be real…. I thought to myself, and quickly shook my head – the others were watching. If anything I might get caught by them in my own fear!

It seemed like the leeches' effects from sucking the blood from my body was making my head swim and beginning to make my vision dizzy and blur. My body was starting to feel heavy, so it gives up the futile attempt.

I begin to submerge, sinking into the heavy water and feel myself go down and drown.

The water would have felt good in one occasion but in this instance, it doesn't. I'm on my back staring at the surface, drowsily, and the thought that I just quit occurs to me.

I'm supposed to be Dauntless and I just quit. I folded and caved, like a coward.

I was so stupid.

Soon my vision goes black, as my eyes slowly droop down and close. I'm so tired.

The water murmurs and rushes through me, cutting me with it's coldness, and all I can hear semi-consciously is the beating of my own heart between my ears. I even fail to realize that the leeches are no longer on me.

It all blends together, and soon the rushing water in my ears starts to sound like a murmuring of distant voices. The water in my mouth and up my nose turns into dirt, and soon I'm awake and coughing, sputtering out clumps of soil, "Hey," I cry out hoarsely. I look up and wipe the earth from my eyes, and look up to see I'm in a ditch and the sky up above is ashen gray. Suddenly more dirt is thrown into the ditch I'm in and lands on me.

"Stop!" I yell. Was this my other fear? Being buried alive? Or suffocation…? More earth and soil rains down on me, making me gasp, and sputter out some soil. But the dirt kept piling onto me, and I tried to claw my way out of and before I know it I'm buried in the soil screaming so shrilly almost like a banshee.

"No! Get me out of here," I cry, "I'm still alive!" I yell shrilly. Why can't they hear me? I start to cry now, while spitting out more dirt, "Please…get me out…please," I whimper.

_This isn't real. _A voice in my head whispers, softly, I try to shake it off. It's right. This isn't real, that's why no one can hear me.

In real life they would, because it wouldn't be a simulation. But I can't let them know that.

I slowly close my eyes and struggle to turn on my side. I cover my head and curl up into a ball.

I need to figure a way out. I look down around myself. Starting to search searching my pockets, I find nothing, until I remember that my hair is still pinned up.

I have a bobby pin to keep it neat. I reach up and take it out and start furiously dig and chip away at the dirt claw with both my hands and ignore the dirt that accumulates around my face.

I close my eyes and am now blindly clawing and before I know it my hands can feel the air – I've reached the surface.

Bits of sunlight crack through and I'm using everything I can to get out now.

I push through the soil and claw my way out and reach the top. Slowly my body pops out from underneath the soil and I feel the wind blowing.

I climb out of the soil and pull the rest of myself out; I'm finally out. At least I proved I can be resourceful in this.

This wasn't so bad.

I look around as the wind picks up, while I wipe my face. It's so cold. I'm covered in dirt, and soil. My face and hair is dirty.

I manage to get some dirt off of me.

Now what?

The wind picks up and this time the cold chills me and cuts through the fabric of my clothes.

Looking up, I note how gray and ashen the sky looks – it looks like rain. I bite my lip, as realization dawns on me. This is the fourth fear that I have. I just clawed my way out of one fear and into another.

The sky rumbles in the most guttural way and before I know it there's a flash, and I jump slightly. That was lightning.

I quake silently and soon before I can breathe there's another flash making me scuttle away on my hands and knees.

It's going to strike me if I don't move. That lightning was far closer than the last flash.

I get to my feet and start running. The next wad of lightning strikes the stop behind me, making me flinch – by the sound it felt like it was really close.

The sky began to rumble even more, now it sounds strong enough to make the world tremble.

I can feel it resounding and echoing inside me.

Suddenly there's a flash of lightning right in front of me and it was so close that I jump back. "Oh my god." I murmur breathily.

That one almost struck me!

I look around helplessly; I can't fight or conquer my fear of lightning that's impossible!

What should I do dammit! What will happen if it strikes me? Will the shock wake me up? I close my eyes. No. I'm not supposed to think that way. It might give me away; so what should I do?

How can I conquer a fear of lightning?

I'll have to get out of this fear at least the Erudite way. One thing I learned from all these simulations – you're supposed to either conquer them or find a way out of them, almost as if they were an actual problem.

So how can I get out of this without giving myself away?

Suddenly another lightning clashes and I jump the light was blinding and it only took me a moment to realize that it almost struck me. The sound made my hands automatically fly up and press to my ears to block out the sound. I sank to the ground and covered myself, curling up into a balled position. The next flash of lightning struck the spot in front of me and I actually felt it sizzle!

I let out a quiet muffled shriek of surprise.

This isn't helping me think at all! What am I supposed to do? Oddly enough my mind starts wandering and soon I can't help but think about how for some reason the lightning makes me think of fireworks…the sounds are almost the same.

Before I know it it's quiet, which makes me lift my head up – the sky is now a darker color, and instead of lightning I see-

_POP!_

Fireworks…?

What did I just do? Several bright colors explode across the sky, showering with bright lights.

I swallow hard, realizing I just gave myself away….didn't I…? It was my Divergence…

Wait, there has to be a way out of this. To cover it up; Divergents can't conform to a simulation but they can manipulate it right? So that means I just have to manipulate this into one of my fears and play this off as one of my fears.

I get up on shaky knees, while thinking of a plan – what's so scary about fireworks?

They're loud. So I could go deaf or something…

They're bright. So I can go blind.

When standing too close to them they can burn and cause bodily harm.

They're malleable so they can start a fire.

That's it! I got it.

I walk down along a pavement back in the city while everyone's preoccupied watching the show. I make sure to pass by some allies and stop by a dark one.

Hands shot out and grabbed me from the dark, winding around me while one covered my mouth muffling my screams. I tried to wriggle and fight back, but it felt like they were too many of them for me to fight off.

I now know that this is my other fifth fear – the reason why I was terrified of fireworks, or loud noises; I was afraid that no one would hear me if I screamed for help.

The sounds would only drown me out.

I lose count of how many there are and soon I feel something covering my eyes – it feels like a blindfold. Then before I know it I'm thrown inside somewhere cold.

Where was I?

I tried to undo my blindfold and before I realize it I smell smoke; something's burning!

Frantically I rip the blindfold off and look around, I'm in some kind of building and-

_**POP!**_

That sounded really close and the shock of it made me jump. It sounded like I was near a place where the fireworks had been launched from. Vaguely I heard something crackling, and soon there's a loud explosion that sends me back to the ground.

The smell of smoke and fireworks was assaulting my senses, and before I knew it one smell became stronger than the other. It was the smoke, and then I got up trying to find a way out.

The smell of smoke grew stronger, and I finally realized what was happening – it was on fire.

I was going to burn alive! This notion made me freeze and grow cold inside; I had been burned once and that was when I was 9.

It was in school and it was a science project – it exploded and ended up hitting my arm cause I was trying to cover my face, and it hurt like hell.

Ever since then I've been afraid of the sensation of being burned, or even just fire. This was the 6th fear. How many more were there?

Normally I've tried to keep my own fears repressed, so I never gave them much thought except for the obvious ones. Snakes, eels, being buried alive, lightning, fireworks, and now burning alive.

How do I get out of a fire? I just have to think – water can put a fire out.

I frantically look around for some water, or a fire extinguisher, something to put the fire out.

I don't want to let them know, but I think I've finally realized the logic behind getting us to face our fears. The point was not in conquering them or how fast you could conquer them or even how long it took you. They want to see how you can get out of them if confronted with them.

As I looked around I spot an abandoned bucket, and grab it quickly, and then begin looking for a source of water and find it in a hose. I grab it and look for the nozzle and find it quickly.

I twist it frantically as the clear liquid starts to fill up the bucket and fill it up.

Though it's heavy I drag it and carry it all the way to where the fire is. I throw the water down on it, watch it deplete much to my relief.

It seemed to have created a space for me to exit, so I take my chance and run out of my confinement.

Now the surroundings around me are different – it's daylight instead of dark and the sky looks blue and clear.

Not like before, when it was dark.

Only thing is now it is quieter, I noticed that the fireworks had stopped, and so had the crackling of the flames that had once surrounded me. There is nothing, just quiet, but the eeriest thing is that there are no people either.

I don't see anyone.

What is this? Is this my other fear? What is it then? I ask myself all these questions frantically.

If I can't find anyone, then is this my fear? Being alone? Being the only one? No. It's just not rational. That can't be it then.

I start walking forward then stop and look around for any sign of anyone.

Still nothing.

I wander around a bit more, and look around. This time around my vision started to blur slightly, and then a ringing filled my ears. I didn't know what was happening, but all I know was that the ringing was getting louder, as it filled my ears.

The blurred vision got stronger and began to last longer, and this time simultaneously with the ringing.

At that moment I realized what was happening – this was it. The seventh fear; it was loss of senses, losing my hearing or my sight.

That was what I was afraid of.

I'm suddenly on my knees covering my ears, and trying to blink the blurriness away but to no avail.

I'm losing my senses – my vision blurs and the ringing is deafening, as I close my eyes. I can only see shapes and figures now, and before I register, I fall onto a flat surface; it must be the ground as I gasp and try to see again.

But nothing is working, and soon everything goes dark for me….

_**End of Fear Simulation**_

It doesn't at first register to me that I'm awake, the only dead give away was when I see a face hovering above mine. Amar.

And his dark eyes look at me with an unreadable gaze. I stare back at him wondering why he's looking at me like that. Did he catch all my 'mistakes'? Did I give myself away? Will he tell?

I feel myself swallowing the hard lump in my throat.

Amar slowly clears his throat, "Well then Eva. You certainly got some attention," he said quietly.

I internally begin to panic, "Why? What happened?" I steal a glance at Pierce, and the other initiates – they look surprised to say the least, even mildly so.

Amar just shakes his head and raises his hand and motions for me to relax which I try, "Do you have any idea how long you were in there?"

I shake my head no.

Amar chuckles, "You were in their for only 4 minutes at the maximum."

I wonder if I've heard him correctly, "How, exactly? What did I do?"

"Well. Even though you're the second person to volunteer to go into the fear landscape," Amar started out, "You did good for a first time. For someone who's only got seven fears, you beat the first initiate by 5."

I blink before my own eyes widen in surprise. Seven? I ask myself, "Five?" I ask slowly.

Amar smiled gently and nodded, "Yes, and that definitely already improves your ranking and your chances of being in Dauntless.

I stare at him then once again glance at everyone else, and then they make the mistake of meeting Eric's gaze. I freeze when I see the look on his face. His eyes look cold, angry even.

I've offended him. No. Not just that. I've become a potential threat to him. I force my gaze away from his own and look back at Amar, who's still smiling obliviously, "Well done."

I nod and get up quickly – I made my way out of the room quickly and get back to my fellow initiates. Mia's staring at me with an odd look, Stiff looks mildly surprised, and so do Bree and the other Dauntless initiates.

I force a shaky thin smile, "Was it that bad?" I joke lamely.

Martin is the one to speak up, "Well you've got less than 12 fears," he smirked, "Don't blame us for being at least a little surprised."

I smirk and laugh slightly, "Yeah. I didn't see that coming," I murmur scratching the back of my head, while inconspicuously threading my thin fingers through my dark ebony hair.

That was far too close. Surely Amar would have noticed…

Wouldn't he?

I shake my head and feel goosebumps on the back of my neck – someone's staring at me. I look over my shoulder and see that it's Eric still.

A scowl forms on my face, as my mouth curves downwards, "What?" I snap impatiently.

Eric rolls his eyes, "Nothing. Just can't forget how stupid you looked when you were facing your fears," he snickered. I heard some of the Candor boys laugh behind me and felt my impatience border on annoyance, "Afraid you'll get beat out by me?"

Eric's snickering face changes into a scowl, "I'd like to see you try, little girl," he challenged, coming up to me.

We were now standing only an inch apart from each other, and glaring into the other's eyes. If he wanted a challenge then he was going to get one!

I didn't even hear the next person volunteer. I think it was Martin.

All I can see is Eric trying to size me up, intimidate me, so to speak, but I stand my ground.

Finally its Stiff of all people who gets in between us, "Leave her alone," he says crisply.

I look up at him in surprise – he's taller than I am, but he's also lankier than most of the boys here.

Eric's lips curve upwards into a cruel smile, "Figures Stiff. You gotta be the one to help huh?" Even I can see there's a double meaning in that.

Stiff doesn't budge but I see his ears burn slightly, from a faint red blush. Looks like he's detected it too. Eric throws his head back and laughs, then glances at me and looks at me dead on, "You can do better."

My mouth falls open at that slightly – what the hell is that supposed to mean?

I'm about to move forward at Eric and get right in his face about this, but I feel a hand on my shoulder tug me away. Stiff drags me away from Eric and moves me so I can stand next to him and Mia.

"Thanks," I said quietly. He nodded, "No problem."

We lapsed into silence until Mia breaks it, "Good job in your fear landscape by the way," she said with a smile.

I just nod quietly, "Thanks.

We once again grow quiet and watch as Martin faces his fears – he looks like he's about to be sick. I move forward, closer to the window slightly until one of the Candor boys scoffs from behind me, "Heh, she's all worried for her boyfriend," they taunt as his Candor friend laughs.

I feel my ire increase and whirl around, "What'd you just say?"

The boy leers at me, "What? Just pointing out the obvious. You're worried for your boyfriend. I mean that's what he is isn't he?" He snickers at me.

I'm about to say something until Eric interjects, "He probably is," he laughs lightly, but the sound has more air in it and sounds hollow and cold.

I feel my cheeks burn as my face flushes hotly, while staring at them, "You…annoying fucking loudmouth," I say coolly narrowing my eyes, "Shut the fuck up," I say angrily. "You have any idea how many people actually care to hear what you say? Zero. So kindly fuck off." I snap, "Or else." I spit out angrily.

My eyes snap at Eric's immediately and he meets my gaze, "Same goes for you."

I can tell I've shocked both of them cause they don't say anything for a while; Eric gives me a strange look, while the Candor boy just stares at me. What was so unusual about an Erudite cursing anyways? My dad cursed a few times under his breath.

I've only cursed a few times in my life but never loosely, and that was only when I was angry. I whirl around and away from him to look back at Martin – I honestly had no idea what had just gotten into me.

Maybe it was the side effect of the fear landscape? Did it really mess me up that badly? I just felt so full of adrenaline right now, that I wanted to punch something over and over again.

Maybe I really did belong here…and maybe that's why I didn't get Amity as a result.

Maybe I have repressed or misplaced aggression issues.

It's grown quiet around me and I can tell that my message was received loud and clear, but at least I've effectively shut that stupid Candor boy up. About damn time.

"Hey," someone whispered over to me and I look to see Bree standing behind me with a smile, "Pretty cool of you to stand up for yourself like that."

I stare at her, "You don't think I took too much of my anger on him?" I ask after a thoughtful silence.

Bree shakes her head, "Nah. In fact I think he deserved it. And you did just come out of your own fear landscape. Naturally you should be a little on edge after that. I'm just impressed that you weren't crying by the end of it all." She grinned at me brightly.

I wasn't? I meet her blue gaze and nod, "And I didn't…do anything else stupid did I?" I asked feeling self-conscious.

Call it vanity but I say it's more of a matter of pride – I'd like to hold onto whatever shred of dignity I have left.

Bree chuckled, "If you're wondering if you screamed, cried, pissed yourself, puked or did any of the above, then no, you didn't. You just looked really tense and you kept turning all white, then relaxing then going all tense again, and you closed your eyes once like really hard, and whimpered."

I nodded and let out a sigh of relief – I still have something to grasp.

"That's good," I whisper. I see her nodding out of the corner of my eye, "You did good for a first time, and an initiate, so congrats."

I smile a little at that, "Thanks. And good luck to you out there too," I said with a smile.

Bree laughed – she had a pretty laugh, "Thanks hopefully I'll do my own faction justice," she grinned at me.

Looks like I was making my first Dauntless friend here.

We stood together quietly chatting watching one by one as the transfers and dauntless-borns faced their fears.

Then Bree left to go into her fear landscape, and to my surprise it takes her 4 minutes – she came out of there like a pro, and I start questioning on whether I really do belong in this faction.

She comes back and I smile at her, "Great job." I say.

Bree smiles and waves at me, "Thanks Ev."

Ev? I thought I already picked a nickname; Bree only shortened this one by one letter and vowel. But I decide not to dwell on it too much.

Mia was the next one to go, and not to discriminate against Amity, but she was handling her fears the exact way I imagined she would.

Crouched against the wall curling up into a ball.

Amar dismisses her. She looks so pitiful and I keep my face neutral – this is just another way to skin it down to the gems, like in biology; survival of the fittest.

With this realization, this is another reason I would never fit into Abnegation.

"Okay Stiff you're the last one left," Pierce said smirking at the tall stocky teen. He walks into the room with Amar. "Just you and me Stiff. Come on lets get this over with," he smirks at the teen.

Stiff leans back and the needle goes into his neck, but he looks like he barely even feels it.

He takes a deep breath and I watch him with interest. Soon his whole face goes pale, and he backs away up against the wall. He looks like he's about to be sick, the way when we jumped off the train.

For me it's pretty safe to discern that he's afraid of heights – that much I've figured. Next it seems to calm and he's relaxed again, then his face holds disgust and pain suddenly. I can only wonder what he's seeing.

Until it's over.

His whole face is still and chalk white suddenly, whatever his next fear is, has him pretty scared.

Stiff starts moving and breathing erratically and suddenly he's crouching down against the wall and turns so that we can only see his back. I can see Eric smirking out from the corner of my eye.

Looks like he already has it in for this guy.

Finally after a few moments it's over – Stiff's done with his fears and I feel my mouth fall open.

He finished. Just like that.

And it took him a lot less longer than me.

He beat me by 2 minutes. While I took 5 minutes, he took 3. And it wasn't just that – he has less fears than I do. Four…!

Amar is standing behind him and from what I can tell they're talking cause Stiff's mouth is moving.

They must be talking about how he did in the Fear Landscape.

I'm sure even Amar was surprised. My eyes skirt over to the initiates and Eric, Bree, Mia, Martin and the others all look as surprised as I do.

"Come on initiates, it's time to get some food," Pierce announces, "It's lunchtime." We reluctantly leave the room and follow him, leaving Stiff and Amar to talk. For the first time it seems like everyone is quiet.

I'm walking next to Mia and Martin, the two Candor boys are trailing behind us, and even they're quiet.

Which is a big relief.

The cafeteria is huge with some crowded tables some spare tables and a few that are just in between, but it's buzzing with side conversations and noise. I notice Bree going to go sit by the Dauntless born initiates, Zeke, and whoever the others are.

I see a line as tattooed chefs set out the food, and decide to go and get some – it dawns on me that I've made it this far, and that's good, so I smile to myself.

I did it, is all I can think to myself.

I grab a hamburger and lather the meat with some sauce, then cover it with a bun, and grab a drink. That's all I'll have for today, I decide as I walk and look for a table.

Somehow, while I was lost in my thoughts, I lost Martin and Mia. I'm not so upset about losing Eric though.

"Eva~! Here," a girlish voice calls me and I quickly find Martin and Mia sitting together.

I smile and walked over to them, taking my seat. "So how'd you guys do?" I asked them as I bite into my hamburger.

This must have been the first thing I've eaten since breakfast.

"Not bad," Martin said with a smile, "I realize I don't have that many fears," he admitted with a chuckle, "10 is my lucky number."

"8," Mia grinned. I bit the inside of cheek while chewing, and tried to cover the wince.

"How'd you do Eva?" Martin asked me with a smile, and I feel myself hesitating in giving an answer, "Oh just regular. It doesn't matter. I mean we all made it right?" I say quickly.

Mia nodded with a giggle, "She's right we did made it~ I'm just so glad it's over."

I feel myself relax and exhale through my nose in relief as she let the subject drop. Thank god.

"Yeah," I give a little smile. And soon one of the Candor boys that join us look at me, "What?" I asked forcefully.

"Nothing. Just wondering, why you don't act like a Noser," he said straightforwardly.

They really are taught to give their honest opinion – I fight the urge to roll my eyes. How did I get them for my test result again?

"What do you mean?" I ask quietly in a low voice.

The Candor boy shrugged, "I mean, for an Erudite, you don't act like one." His other Candor friend chuckled, commenting, "Stuck up, your nose stuck in a book, and snooty he means. No, you act more like a Stiff," he says.

I narrow my eyes at them both into a glare, and am about to say something until I'm rudely interrupted, "They're right. For an Erudite you act more like a Stiff." I looked up and saw Eric approaching and sitting down with us, placing his tray in front of him.

I find myself staring for far too long than I would like to admit and while I do, at the same time can't help but wonder, how I've never met this guy before.

We were in the same faction – why didn't I ever notice him?

He seems to notice my stare and meets dead on with cool chipped eyes, a smirk curving at the corner of his lips, "Something interesting you noticed?"

I scowl at him then hear two more chairs being pushed back and see that it's Amar and Stiff joining us. Eric is the first to comment, "Jeez Stiff, you look like you're about to faint," he remarks and one of the Candor boys grin.

"You all made it out alive," Amar says with a chuckle, "Congratulations. You made it through the first day of initiation with varying degrees of success," his eyes rest on Eric. "None of you did as well as Four over here though," he smiled proudly patting Stiff's shoulder.

Four? My lips twitch upwards – looks like we can't call him Stiff anymore~

"Hey Tori," Amar calls out with a smile over his shoulder to a pretty looking girl with a wildly braided mop of dark hair and curls and slanted dark eyes with bronze skin and small pointed nose, "Ever hear of anyone only having four fears in their fear landscape?" He asks with a grin.

She arches a dark brow, "Last I heard there were 7 or 8. Why?" She calls back.

Amar's grin widens, "Got a transfer over here with only four fears," he says proudly.

The woman Tori points at Stiff now, dubbed Four, and Amar nods.

"That's gotta be a new record," she says with a grin.

Amar pats Four on the shoulder, "Well done," then gets up to go to Tori's table, I follow him with my eyes, and am about to look back at Four, to offer him some kind of congratulations until I spot someone familiar…Ryder is sitting at Tori's table with the older Dauntless members; Max, Pierce, Tori, now Amar, Ray, and Ryder.

As if feeling my gaze, Ryder's stormy eyes snap to me, almost wondering who I am and his own eyes widen a little – he didn't expect to see me here.

His face suddenly looks grim, and hard, his eyes brewing again with a raging storm, and I'm sucked in.

He was probably thinking how stupid I was to transfer here…

I reluctantly tear my gaze away from him, and back to Four, who's still being gawked at like a sideshow attraction.

It's Eric that seems to detect the threat in the water, "What's your name again? Starts with an E…?"

Four cuts him off, "My name is Four. Call me Stiff again and you and I are gonna have a problem." That shuts Eric up but he rolls his eyes, and I'm still staring at Four who notices my gaze, "What?" He asks impatiently.

I shrug, "Nothing. Just wanted to congratulate you." I say narrowing my eyes offensively at his tone.

First he tells Eric to back off for me, now he's biting my head off. What the hell is his problem?

He frowns, "Oh sor-," I cut him off sharply, "Forget it then," I shrug, and turn back to my unfinished hamburger suddenly losing my appetite.

What a mess…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy; they belong to Veronica Roth. But I do own Eva, and Bree.**

"Okay. Rise and shine. Everybody up, now!" I hear Pierce's voice rouse us from sleep; I cracked an eye open, and then yawned and stretched. I lifted myself from my cot, tried to shake the sleep from my head.

I hear the groans and murmurs of protests – I rubbed my eyes and see Pierce's light blue eyes shining through the dark, and cutting through it.

"Everybody up, we'll be doing drills, and learning some fighting moves and techniques, that will be the second stage of initiation," he announced, "Get dressed and meet me and Amar in the gym."

With that we started getting dressed; I turned and threw on black training pants and black sports bra, then threw a black t-shirt over it.

I grabbed a hairband and tied it back lowly but tightly.

The other initiates got ready with me, I couldn't help but envy Mia's body – it was soft and supple, it had a healthy tan to it, from the day's labor out in the fields and orchards.

It seemed like Amity was the one Faction that seemed rub all others the right way, the one to be jealous of.

They were sociable, nice, peaceful, and had a kind of radiance about them, from a beauty that resonated within. The only thing that the Erudite had, were brains, intelligence, and cleverness. All of which only encouraged arrogance, and already gave us a bad rep.

We're as pretentious as we like to pretend to be.

The other initiates are ready, and we head to the gym and exercise area; Martin stands next to me, barely awake, and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Mia is standing between Four and Eric. Amar and Pierce go and stand in front of us.

Amar is the first to speak, "Today we will be having our first fights at the end of training. You will be randomly selected an opponent that you will take on."

"But for now, you'll be running drills, some partner practice and that will prepare you for the actual fights." Pierce continued after Amar.

They started showing us the drills and I did my best to memorize them; all the other initiates seemed to be fired up and enthusiastic about learning them – Mia, Four, the boy from Candor Sean, Eric, Martin was too.

We started out with running laps, then some cardio, then they showed us some moves.

Then we started practicing them.

I ended up discovering that I had muscles I never knew even existed.

We had to partner up, to practice the drills on each other – I partnered with Martin. Funny how we jumped off the train together, now it seems like we're practically inseparable.

Four partnered up with Mia, and Eric partnered up with Sean. They make a lovely pair…

Martin and I practiced the drills on each other, harmlessly of course. Then we heard Pierce's voice stop us, "Okay enough. Today we get down to the fighting. Since we spent most of this time preparing, we'll only have time for 3 fights."

Amar and Pierce showed us the board and my eyes frantically searched for my name. I found it and felt my throat go dry.

_Mia vs. Four_

_Eva vs. Eric_

_Martin vs. Sean_

Shit. Shit.

Even though he did have some muscle that wasn't his only advantage over me, he was taller, bigger, and thicker in his body than I was. I was going to lose big time.

I sneak a glance at him and he's smirking. It seems like he can feel me staring and glances at me, and snickers.

The look only gives me goose bumps – I wouldn't be surprised if he liked to torture cats for fun.

I force my head away and swallow.

The Sti- Four is up first, and he's up against the Amity girl Mia. They get in the ring together and we gather in a circle around them.

Mia gets into stance and so does Four; she moves closer to him and throws the first punch, which he dodges. She throws the second one and he dodges that one too. If I didn't know any better I could almost guess that he's afraid of hitting her.

Either that or he's never hit a woman before in his life – then again he is from Abnegation, and they don't condone this lifestyle.

They see all factions as self-indulgent.

Erudite have too much knowledge, and among other things, Amity have too much food, Dauntless have too much pride and sometimes show way too much skin, Candor have…well they're honest, I honestly don't know what they have. But if I had to guess, I would say that they have too much freedom to say what they like.

The fight continues for a little too long and before we all realize it, Four is now in a choke hold by Mia.

I hear Eric laughing – he finds this amusing.

Forcing my gaze back at the opponents I frown slightly, "Come on Stiff," I whisper to myself.

It shouldn't make any sense why he lost this fight – yeah he's got a lanky build but his size and width should help. I honestly can't help but feel a bit sorry for him; he has to win this, if he doesn't then he's only going to prove everyone right.

Abnegation gets bullied enough as it is. If there was ever a time to make a statement, it should be that more of them should switch to Dauntless and learn a thing or two about confidence.

Confidence does build for victory.

I stare at him and then finally he jams his elbow into her side then once he's free into her face, which knocks her back and makes her lose consciousness.

It was a pretty close fight, but the former Stiff won.

"Good one Four," Martin next to me congratulates him. Four nods, looking out of breath, "Thanks," he said. I nod at him, "Good job," I murmur quietly.

He nodded again then glances at the board and then back at me, "Good luck." He says lowly.

I nod then glance at Martin as he smiles at me encouragingly, "You can do it. You just have to keep moving, and stay out of his range. He's bigger than you but that also means he's slower. You have to be faster and always be on your feet," he said to me.

I nodded then moved to stand in the fighting ring. I watch as Mia gets dragged away by Amar. He turns to the other instructor. "Pierce you take care of the next fight okay?"

"Yeah you got it," he said then Amar is gone, and Pierce turns to us, "Okay initiates go on now." He orders us.

I'm standing across from Eric who is smirking at me, "You look a little green there," he jabs at me again, "You gonna faint? Cause if you are then I might take it easier on you," he taunted.

I say nothing and get into position, raising my arms up, and clenching my fists tightly.

Eric laughs as he mockingly gets into the stance – he's playing with me, and that makes me irritated.

Scowling I move slightly closer and cautiously.

He laughs lowly and decides to take a punch at me. I dodge it, and remember Martin's warning, and deliver a punch at what I aimed and hoped to be his face, but I accidentally punched his neck. He gasps and goes to clutch his throat. I might have bruised his Adam's apple.

I smile a little and deliver another punch to his face, while he's winded.

He stumbles and reels back in shock then glares at me, as he comes off his shock; he's angry now, and that means he won't be joking anymore.

Eric moves closer to me, and he raises his fists up again then moves and swerves slightly then takes me by surprise and punches me in the shoulder, which moves me back slightly and before I can protect any vital parts or dodge any attacks, he lands a punch on my on the right side of my ribcage.

I gasp quietly and feel like covering up my side, but remember I have to stay on my feet. I can't stop moving no matter what. Otherwise that'll be it.

I move around on my feet lightly, trying to stay out of his range, and he looks like he's trying to keep up with me. He is bigger than I am in stature, and that would mean that he has a problem with balance or something along the lines of weight distribution.

His legs and feet should be his weakness.

As soon as I work this out, I know I no have a plan at hand; I swing a punch at him, which he dodges then swings some punches at me.

I try to dodge them or block some of the ones that I can't evade. He got me in the shoulder then grazed my face slightly, one of the more bruising ones, were to my abdomen, drawing a sharp breath from me.

I whirl around, and stay on my feet, then I surprise him by avoiding a punch and quickly circling behind him and throwing a punch at his back then at the shoulder and then with some more speed I get a blow at his side. He lets out a strained breath then turns to try and lunge an attack at me, I move out of his reach expertly. He turns and faces me and I see his eyes.

They look so dark – this is getting him angrier by the minute. I frown and wonder how to get close to his legs, but am cut off by a hard sharp grunt, then see Eric lunging at me, and before I know he grabs me.

Instinctively I release my arms from the their defensive pose, and grab onto his back, and his neck.

I tighten my hold on him and grip, then with all my might, I bring my knee up and slam it into his gut with a heavy force, he gasps and then I head butt him in the face, I hear his nose crack against my forehead.

He groans angrily then punches in the side hard, and I hear my ribs cracking, I gasp.

My hold on him unwinds and he grabs me and throws me on the ground. I land with a loud thud and grunt of my own.

I lift myself to my hands and knees and then once I'm up I feel a hard kick to my stomach, and then my head.

I groan and try to get up only to get punched in the face.

I spit some liquid out, it looks and tastes like blood.

My face feels wet and sticky and only then do I realize I'm bleeding all over my face. The fucker bruised my cheek and ribcage probably cracked some of my ribs, and bruised the right side of my body, and now I'm bleeding through my nose, and out of my mouth.

He kicks me again in my stomach and I can hear and feel more cracking – I need to get up. I rolled on my back, which was probably a bad idea, I should have rolled onto my stomach so that my back would cover me and take most of the damage.

I open eyes then as he's about to kick me again I grab his foot, and reactively punch him with all my might into his stomach.

He's distracted and while he is I tighten my hold on his leg then lift up one of my legs and slam my foot into his other leg's knee hard.

I hear a crack and he gasps and goes down.

I think I either broke his leg or dislocated his knee

"Enough this fight is at a draw," Pierce announces. By the time its over, Amar has already returned and helps Pierce take Eric and I to get treated for our injuries.

A tie wasn't so bad right, better than losing right?

Now why do I feel so guilty all of a sudden? This was Dauntless. They fought all the time here and broke limbs too.

I didn't break anything of Eric's. Did I?

Pierce helps Eric up and supports him while they hobble up to the hospital wing, and Amar carries me, following after them.

"You alright?" Amar asks me.

I don't answer right away, "How do I look," I ask him back.

He chuckles, "Like shit," he says jokingly, and that makes me laugh a little too, but I wince since my side is bruised and in pain, "Then I feel as pretty as I look," I joked lamely with a pained grin.

Amar laughs at that, as he lies me down on the hospital bed, "Rest up young one," he said, "For a first time fight you did pretty good. Probably a bit better than Four, since you weren't put in a choke hold but still. So far you two are really exceptional."

I nod slowly, "Thanks Amar."

"Get some sleep and don't give the doctors any trouble here," he chortles softly, then turns and leaves.

I'm alone now, left to think and reflect on my official first day here.

I just got into my first fight – and even though I didn't win, I was in a tie. At least I didn't lose, so then that could increase the chance that I get to stay here and not wind up factionless.

But then that was also another good thing; it allowed me to fly under the radar, and be undetected. I'm confident now that I can do this, I can make it here, I'll survive here, despite my Divergence.

I have tried to suppress it and ignore it, but then if I can't, then I'll have to try and disguise it.

I leaned back into my pillow, and close my eyes briefly. My head hurts like crazy, I got a splitting headache – I can try and sleep it off while I'm here. It wasn't like I got hit in the head hard enough to give me a concussion.

As soon as my eyes slip shut, I hear coughing coming from across the room, making me open them slowly.

I tilt my head up and glance at the source of the noise.

It's Eric… I inwardly curse myself for my rotten luck. He's staring at me long and hard. His eyes are brewing with what looks to be an upcoming storm.

He doesn't look as bad as I do; in fact we sort of match. I know I must have bruised his stomach with my knee strike, and I can see a bruise on his jaw. If I was bigger and my fist weighed more than it did now, then it could have dislocated his jaw, and I'm suddenly glad that I didn't put more force and strength into it. He's got some gauze on his nose, where I head butted him. There's splint on his leg, on the area of his knee; in short he looks as bad as I do.

And at this moment he looks like he's debating on whether to kill me or not.

I meet his stare dead on and do my best to look as though I'm not imitated. I wish he'd just do something already. At least say something, stupid.

"It was a good fight." He said suddenly, taking me by surprise. I blink at him widely, "I'm sorry? Did you just….give me a compliment?" He scoffs at me, "Hard to believe you're from Erudite," he remarked.

And the moment was gone.

"Well excuse the hell out of me for doubting you," I retort. The guy has jackass written all over him.

"Don't tell me you're one of those girls that believes in first impressions," he snorts. "I just can't believe I nearly lost my fight to you of all people," he grumbles.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I demand angrily.

He gave me a glare, "Well I'm here trying to be boost my ranking, and I end up being beat by a girl smaller than me."

"First of all," I snap, "I didn't beat you. Neither of us won. And just so you know it was a draw, we tied," I said, "And just what do you mean by 'you of all people'?" I spat impatiently.

As far as either of us were concerned, we were both in Erudite. It was still better than him being beat out by a Stiff. No offense to Four. He's good, but…the Dauntless born can still take us if they wanted to. It was like Amar said, it was best for us not to intermingle in their initiate year, they really could break us apart.

"Just forget it," he quipped back moodily, and I scowled at him then leaned back into my pillow, pulling the blanket over me.

This time I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes, in spite of my headache still being present. I just stared up at the ceiling, just letting my mind go blank – if people thought that Abnegation was a strict faction, they haven't seen Erudite.

My former faction, often put on airs, showing off their conceit, vanity, pride and arrogance, but much like the Abnegation, there were certain things Erudite discouraged its youth, as well as all its members to have too.

One of them was freedom of thought. We were allowed to ask questions and ponder complex puzzles and mazes in life's path, even as far as questioning what we really knew and our future. Where we belonged. However, most of those questions had already been solved, while most were still being worked on now. Despite the Erudite knowing what they wanted to do with their life and what they wanted out of it. One of the few things we were discouraged of, was not knowing. In short, if you were in Erudite or chose it as your faction, you would always have to know what you want. There was no such thing as not knowing – if you didn't know then that was something that could be remedied. People like me would have been looked down on, even considered factionless. And for those of us who did know too much for our own good, and wanted to know more, would wonder, what is on the outside of the border of our city. Past the Amity farms and orchards.

That was the way of Erudite:

You must know what you want to do with your life.

You can never not know.

Don't ask dangerous questions.

Don't have an empty head.

Always have a thought in your head.

Always be informed and aware that there is knowledge to obtain.

Never ignore facts.

Question everything.

Hunt Divergents- I screw my eyes shut at that.

Why does that seem to resurface inside my mind? I made it out of there didn't I? So why should I still be paranoid?

I suppose the only answer I can find within myself is the fear of being exposed and the fear of not knowing what they do to Divergents like me once they find them. Will they kill me? Will they keep me alive and probe the secrets and mysteries of my brain?

Why is it that I can suddenly picture my own father standing above me wearing surgical mask and holding a scalpel in one hand and needle in the other.

I snap my eyes open and grip my sheets at that. I'm going to give myself nightmares if I keep worrying like this.

What I need to do is focus, and not lose sight of the real objective at hand. Pass initiation without creating too many waves and drawing attention to myself, not get a low ranking, and not end up factionless.

"Hey," I hear Eric's voice again, and frown slightly – I thought he fell asleep. "What?" I ask lowly, thinking he's going to insult me again.

"Can I ask you something," Eric asked, surprising me again, that I can only lift myself up on my elbows and stare at him. "You just did," I point out.

My Erudite is showing. He can probably tell cause I see his lips quirking upwards in a thin strained smile. As much of a smile as his bruised face would allow.

He takes this as a yes, "When you were fighting me, I could see that you were thinking."

My lips quirk slightly with interest, no longer set in a frown, "Yeah what about it?" I asked with interest.

Eric sat up and stared at me with his piercing dark eyes, "Were you….planning out your next moves or something? Like were you thinking of tactics to use in the fight?" I stare at him, and to him I must look pretty stupid because I don't answer for a minute.

"Yeah…," I answered slowly and hesitantly, "Weren't you?" I ask him back cautiously.

It feels like I'm stepping onto a minefield. I never know how this guy will act – he's so unpredictable for an Erudite. At least with them you can guess their thoughts.

Maybe this was what qualified him for Dauntless.

"I guess so, but I was kind of counting on size and weight you know?" He said leaning back with a sigh.

I nodded slowly, I did know – I guess that part of him was predictable. No matter where you go in life you never really forget where it is you come from.

"I get it," I said slowly.

"I'll give you credit though, you weren't bad at all," he said, "I knew what you were doing out there. You were looking for a weakness weren't you?" I lifted my head and nodded once.

He smiled crookedly, "So was I."

I feel the corners of my lips lift up slightly, "We were thinking along the same wavelength then," I said quietly.

We lapse into silence, until I break it this time, "I'm sorry…for breaking your knee," I said.

He scoffed, "Pfft, You? Break? Please? As if you can do any real damage," he snickered.

And just like that we back to square one, "How's your nose," I ask sardonically with a smirk.

He gives me a look, which would match my mother when she means to reproach me for being rude, or impolite. I grin at him, and for some strange reason, he grins back – I guess the only way to describe the moment that passed between us was, something akin to friendship or some sort of understanding.

"You really didn't break my knee," Eric started out, "You dislocated it though, but nothing they can't pop back in," he shrugged nonchalantly and with a cool glance.

I nodded slowly, "Good," I say. It was strangely comforting to know that I didn't completely put him out of commission.

Leaning my head back against my pillow, and gaze at the ceiling; I can't help but compare it back to the ceiling of my old room. A pained wave of nostalgia hits me, that and something along the lines of homesickness.

I can only wonder what my parents are doing right now – what day was it today?

Maybe I took so many blows to the head that I forgot…

What would they do if they see me fighting someone, or dislocating their knee, or kicking someone in the guts.

Back in Erudite we don't have physical disputes, we have verbal ones – maybe that's why Erudite and Candor get along so well. We use our words. Not that Abnegation or Amity doesn't either. Amity does more than Abnegation, but only cause Abnegation's other solution would be to just ignore something and hold their tongue.

I feel goose bumps on my skin and look up, feeling Eric's gaze on me, "Yeah?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "Nothing. Just wondering why I never noticed you in Erudite, before coming here," he admitted, "What was your name again?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked him shrewdly.

Eric snorts, "Well, I know it's not really Eva." I sigh and lean my head back, "Evangeline," I answered quietly, but I'm sure he's heard me.

"You got a last name that goes with your name _Evangeline,_" he snickers at me tauntingly.

I glare at him, "Zedler."

Eric's face goes blank for a second, "Zedler," he repeats slowly, "You're Adam Zedler's daughter." He says slowly.

My dad?!

I frown a bit and nod, "Yeah….you know him?" I ask slowly. Eric nodded, "Yeah, but I never met him, my dad talked about him," he said. I tilt my head slightly, "Who's your dad," I ask with interest.

He paused then looked me dead in the eyes, "William Matheson," he said.

I stare at him blankly – William is my dad's colleague, and works closely with Jeanine; I had heard my dad mention him once, and from what I could observe, it was rather disdainful, how he spoke of him.

"I know who that is too," I said quietly.

We lapsed into silence, until all I could hear were Eric's low grunts as he would try and get himself situated, on occasion.

I looked around and wondered if there was anything I could do – I really don't feel like sleeping now, since we got to talking. My lips curl slightly in a faint smile, playing a game would fight off boredom, but I don't think Eric is the kind of guy for games.

"What are you grinning about," Eric scowled at me with hostility, sitting up. He must have thought I found his situation amusing, "Not about you if that's what you think," I answer.

This quiets him down, now I have some moments to think.

However, my companion doesn't seem to want to keep quiet, "Hey." He says. I snap my eyes in his direction, "What now?" I quip back.

He stares at me, his dark eyes seem to draw me in – upon closer look and in this lighting, they don't look dark at all, they're actually a dark gunmetal blue, that can be mistaken for black. Whenever I've seen them, they tend to look stormy and dark gray…._**and very alluring**_, I think to myself.

Huh?! Where the hell did that come from!? I shake my head slightly.

"Your pose was wrong," he said suddenly taking me by surprise. "What?" I asked loudly.

"When we were fighting, your pose was wrong," he clarified looking at me with that same smug smirk. Asshole.

"Oh really?" I grumble at him. "And how was that. I was doing exactly what they were teaching us." I snap.

He rolls his eyes at this, "You know we're not Erudite anymore. And I know this, cause I spent most my time in Erudite, reading up books on combat and fighting styles, so yeah I know what I'm talking about."

I stare at him perplexed, "And you're deciding to drop this piece of wisdom on me because….?"

Eric shrugged, "Do I really need a reason for helping you?"

I stare at him, "I can think of a reason why you wouldn't help me," I point out cleverly. Now we're in a staring contest.

"Okay fine," he groans, "Maybe I do have a hidden agenda," he scoffs. I feel victorious, at least I won this round.

"And what would that be?" I asked him confidently.

Eric smirks, "Maybe it's a matter of pride," he said, which confuses me, "Pride?" I repeat.

He nodded once, "It would be embarrassing to see a fellow Erudite lose and fall through the cracks. I already know I can pass this initiation," he said arrogantly, "But you…?" He snickers, "You're about as far down as the Stiff is."

I feel heat spreading across my chest, and rise up along my neck, staining my cheeks. "You call lying in this hospital bed with a busted kneecap, passing this initiation," I taunted, then smirked, "Remind me again how you got this far?"

Eric's smug grin fades as he glares at me, "As I was saying," he gritted out, "I'm offering you some help," he said, "If we help each other out we all win. And you won't get to be factionless," he reasoned.

I stare at him incredulously, "Mind if I ask why you're choosing to help me out?"

He gazes at me, and that seems to make me unconsciously lick my dry slightly bloodied lips.

It tastes sticky and coppery, but there's something sweet to it….

I don't know if I'm imagining things, but I think I catch his eyes following the movement of my lips.

"You're not a complete moron," Eric starts out by saying that, "A hell of a lot smarter than Sean, from what I've seen," he said, "And you're not bad company either," he smirks at me, looking me over with a wicked look.

"So you want a friend," my tone comes out as an inflection – a statement of interest, and curiosity being peaked and a question all at the same time.

"I want an ally," he corrects me.

Something in me deflates at that, "….." Why was that? It's not like I was waiting for a proposal or something. This shouldn't bother me, but it does.

His logic should make sense, but I can't seem to find any reason behind it; there must be something else he wants.

His father works with Jeanine, and therefore, Eric has seen a lot of her, what if this conversation is a ploy to get closer, what if he's Jeanine's spy…?

I could be walking into a trap for all I know.

I find myself lifting my head and meeting his gaze again, "I'll think about it." I answer.

He nodded, "Good," he smirks at me, then leans back into his pillow. I slowly lean my head back too and then slowly turn over on my side to avoid looking at him. Then slowly close my eyes, and fall into an uneasy sleep.

**Next Morning…**

I woke up before Eric, and breathing heavily – I had a dream that there was someone standing over my bed, and they woke me up, by pressing a knife to my neck, I couldn't see there face but I could feel the cold metallic sharp blade pressing against my throat. They were demanding me to answer the question if I was Divergent or not. I tried to deny it, but they wouldn't believe me, and threatened me.

Holding my neck, and brushing my fingers along the flesh I glance over at Eric to see if he was awake too.

He was still out like a light, and looked to be in a deep sleep.

When he wasn't awake, he actually looked peaceful, and harmless, his face was relaxed, and calm. I think I was staring far too long for my liking, but even I have to admit, it was a rare sight to witness.

I shake my head quietly and look back down at myself – maybe I should try and fall back asleep. If Eric was still asleep then it must be really early in the morning. The guy was an early bird. He was always the first one of us up and out of bed, just at the moment when the instructors were waking us up.

Probably wanted to show his effort and ambition. I slid my legs off the mattress and sit up in bed with a quiet soft sigh.

I get up and stretch a little then, get down on the ground on all fours, and start to push myself up then down. Might as well do some push ups, so that I don't fall behind. We're still having fights, and I want to prepare myself.

I've accomplished 6 now, and keep going.

7. 8. 9. 10. I breathe out of my nose and let out some air. 11. 12. 13. 14. I blow out some more air and hollow out my cheeks then, go down for some more, 15. 16. 17. 18.

I gasp as my side throbs. 19. 20. I stop there, since I don't want to test to see how strong my limit expands to.

I get off and to my feet, and stretch. Eric is still asleep, this time he's only turned to lie on his back, and is facing upwards towards the ceiling. He stirs slightly in his sleep and exhales.

Shrugging to myself I lie down on the ground and fold my arms behind my head, and slowly lift up to my first sit up. 1. 2. 3. 4…5. I grunt as bruised side throbs in a slow searing pain.

6. 7. 8…9…10. I gasp out softly and just lie on the ground, panting softly then sit up.

I wince as the throbbing comes to a searing explosion – I glance down at my side then lift my tank top and see the bruise all blue and purple, extending from ribcage and stomach to my side. It's a large one.

I sit up with a quiet groan. I look over and see that Eric's still sound asleep. Maybe he's a heavy sleeper, and probably cause he's been waking up early nearly everyday since he's been here.

He's got determination, I'll give him that.

I sigh and decide that I'm hungry and go to give him some rest. Right now I want some breakfast.

No food impairs my thinking.

I walk over to the cafeteria and see Martin and Mia sitting together eating and talking about something. Sean is sitting with the other Candor boy, and Pierce, and Amar are sitting with the other instructors. Four is sitting with Amar and looks like he's just listening.

The woman Tori is sitting next to him.

"Eva~!" I hear someone call my name and look over to see Bree, and a bunch of Dauntless born initiates; Zeke, Shauna, Lauren, another girl whose name I don't recall and some others.

Bree is grinning and is waving me over to their table.

I suddenly feel all prickly, like others are watching me, and ignore it. I smile at Bree and walk over to her table.

"Hey," I greet her with a casual wave. I glance at the others and curl my fingers in a wave awkwardly, "Um, hi." I say feeling rather out of place. Bree smiles at me, "Come sit with us."

I slowly walk towards them and sit down, "Thanks," I sliding down to sit next to her.

Bree nods, "So how you feeling after yesterday? I heard that you guys had your fights yesterday," she said with a smile.

Hard to believe that this girl was Dauntless, and could be so friendly. Lauren, a dark haired girl with a pierced eyebrow speaks up, "You guys didn't hear?" She grinned at me, "This one dislocated someone's knee."

"You're kidding," some blond girl with a nasally voice said snottily.

Shauna shrugged, "It's true. I heard it from Zeke, who heard it from Amar and Pierce when they were talking to the other instructors."

Looks like word already spread about my little maneuver. I bite my bottom lip and look down. Hopefully Eric won't be too embarrassed about this little rumor spreading around. So much for not making any waves around this place.

Suddenly Bree looks over at me, "So, Ev, you wanna come out and hang with us?" She asked with a grin.

I glanced at her and nodded, "I….yeah sure," I smile back at her.

She had a very contagious grin that gave her a very kittenish look, especially with her baby blue eyes. The only thing that made her look Dauntless was the black eyeliner and mascara around her round eyes, and the tattoos on her shoulder.

"Cool, we're going to the tattoo parlor then zip lining," Bree giggled happily.

I almost felt stupid for the next thing that came out of my mouth, "What?" I asked. They all looked at me until it was Shauna that snorted, "Right like she would know what zip lining is, Bree," she scoffed.

I get the feeing that it would take a awhile to befriend someone like Shauna, so I bit my tongue back from saying anything rude.

Lauren shook her head, "Aren't you noses supposed to know like everything?" The blond asked me curiously.

I frowned slightly, "We don't know everything. That's an understatement."

Zeke chuckled, "Only a Noser would say something like that. Even using the word understatement."

Shauna scoffed, "They would also be the only ones that feel the need to correct you."

Something in me snaps – that's my family they're talking about, "You should really hear what we Noses say about you," I quip toxically.

Shauna narrowed her eyes at me, "Oh yeah and just what do you know-it-alls say," she demanded hotly.

I could see her face flushing angrily, and now the two of us were matching.

"That you guys are danger-addicted freaks," I shrug casually, "But whatever, I mean it's not like I listen to them otherwise I would have picked a different faction," I say tartly.

That gets them quiet, until Bree speaks up, "Eva just means that we all misjudge and stereotype one another," she explained.

Zeke suddenly laughs then claps a hand on my shoulder, "With that mouth of yours, you really might have what it takes to be a Dauntless," he says, then Laurent and the others chuckle, laugh and murmur with him.

So does Bree. The only one who's not laughing is Shauna – she's glaring at me. There'll be trouble with this one, I tell myself quietly, I better watch out for her.

"So are you in or what?" Bree asked me with a grin.

"C'mon say you come. Zip lining is awesome," Lauren smiled at me.

"And it's not like you got a tattoo yet, trust me. If you had we would have seen you down at the tattoo parlor," Zeke grinned, "It'll be your first so come on and show us that you're not a pansy-cake."

I smirk to myself and let out a light laugh under my breath, "Alright, alright. I'll go."

Maybe getting a tattoo won't be so bad.

The day passed regularly, we had our sparring fights again, then I left with Bree, Lauren and Shauna, to go get some tattoos.

Zeke went to go meet up with the guys and would meet us to go zip lining later.

The tattoo parlor was dimly lit with lights in every room, there were some blue lights that made the room and lighting around us appear purple or violet, and then in some rooms the lighting was red, cause of the dark neon orange walls, and the room appeared that way.

It was a rogue and some wildly beautiful setting.

A thin woman, with a mass of dark hair and round small dark eyes, came forward, I recognized her as Amar's friend Tori, she greeted Bree and took her aside to get her tattoo.

A big tall gruff guy named Bud, came forward and took Shauna, while a guy named Harrison took Lauren to get her tattoo done. I looked around then spotted a familiar face.

Ryder.

He's clearing out a chair and hanging up one of the designs on the walls as a choice selection.

I walk over to him – he doesn't see me yet, but I can see his broad rippling shoulders and his powerful back facing me as he goes on about his tasks.

I take a slight breath then brave up, "Excuse me." I say boldly.

He stopped what he was doing then glanced at me over his shoulder. His dark stormy eyes meeting mine, "…." He's grown quiet, as his mouth twists impatiently and a bit angrily.

"I'd like a tattoo," I say hoping that my voice didn't shake or falter; this guy was bigger than me and real intimidating. Like the kind of guy you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley or the kind of guy you'd think twice about picking a fight with.

He stares at me, "Pick one," he motions to the selections while answering gruffly.

I nod and step forward to look at my choices – I spot a dark lightning one striking out at something.

"That one," I say, pointing to it – this will remind me of what I have to conquer. The man grunts with a nod and goes to take the clipping and takes my shoulder with his rough calloused hand, "Sit down," he orders.

I nod once and sit down in the chair and lean forward, as he asks, "Where do you want this?"

I think for a minute, "I'd like it start on my shoulder then go down a bit on my back if that's okay?" He nods quietly then helps me remove my shirt, "I'll need to remove everything else off your back too," he points out.

I hesitate, and feel my face flush hotly, "Okay…." I say uncertainly.

Quietly I slip my black sports bra off but keep it in front of my chest, and lean forward then move my hair to the side and sling it over my shoulder, so it doesn't bother him.

My shoulder and back is exposed to him, and I feel his fingers trace down along my flesh, "Is there where you want me to stop?" He asked, his hands pausing at the left of where my spine should be.

"Yeah," I say. I won't lie that it feels weird having someone touch me like that, but I figure I can put up with a bit of discomfort.

Ryder soon starts getting to work as he begins his design of the tattoo trailing the ink down from my shoulder.

"Ryder?" I suddenly ask him. "What?" He gruffs out.

I pause then glance at him over my shoulder, "I….I'd like to talk about what we…talked about before. You know….that thing?" He stops what he's doing for a brief minute and glares at me reproachfully almost like he's chastising me, "No." He says simply.

I frown, "Why not?" I demand curiously. I can tell that I'm getting on his nerves, "Just cause," he snapped at me, "Now quit moving or I'm gonna mess up. And believe me sweetcheeks I don't put up with screaming drama queens," he gave me one look as if daring me to mouth off to him or say something.

My frown deepens and I feel rebellion set in my heart, "Why? If this has something to do with me, then I need to know," I hiss at him quietly in a whisper.

Ryder scowls at me, then leans forward, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear. His coarse facial hair scratches the skin lightly, "You wanna get caught? You want them to find out and kill you?" He whispers to me.

I pause and quietly swallow, and slowly shake my head.

"Then shut up," Ryder growled into my ear, making an involuntary shiver course through me. He pulled away and proceeded with his work, leaving me to think about his words.

Could they really be listening in on this?

Did the Erudite put up cameras in all the faction compounds? Is this how they hunt for Divergents?

"How's your initiation coming along?" Ryder suddenly asked – another reason why he freaked me out, is cause he was so unpredictable. Like a snapping wolf; he can be aggressive and snapping his teeth at me one moment then the next calm and quiet.

"It's good. Fine," I answered slowly and cautiously, "I'm getting through it the best way I can."

Ryder hummed gruffly giving a nod, "You made it past the fear landscape?" He asked lowly. I nodded quietly, "Yeah….it was hard until I figured out what they wanted to us to do."

The older man grew quiet, "Is that what you think they want?" He asked. "To get through our fears right? Isn't that the objective," I asked uncertainly.

His eyes catch mine in one of the mirrors hanging on the dark orange wall, "The objective is to beat them back, not get through them," he murmured, "Beat them back the way any Dauntless would. You're not in Erudite anymore. You're Dauntless now, so it's time you start acting like it. Act like anything else, and they'll catch you faster," he warned me.

My throat dries as my voice catches in it.

How am I supposed to beat my fears back the way a Dauntless would? Fight them off physically?

"Can you help me?" I ask him softly.

His eyes always seem like there's a storm brewing in them or a hurricane, "No." He says finally, and I feel that I'm stuck in a hopeless situation – that they will find what they are looking for, and when they do, they'll find it in me, and then they will kill me.

"But I can show you," he said suddenly and I lift my eyes in surprise to look at him, "How?" I asked in amazement.

"Meet me after lunch the day after tomorrow," Ryder said quietly, then drew back, "You're finished," he said and I think I see a slight smirk twitching at the corners of his lips.

I get up then turn and look down my shoulder; the lightning stripe starts down my shoulder then goes down to my back in a lashing motion and then stops at where my ribs are.

"I like it," I smile as I stare at it for a couple of seconds then glance back at him and smile.

He nodded and gives me a smug smile, "Good."

"Ev~! You ready?" I hear Bree's voice calling me out, then I glance over my shoulder and holler back, "Yeah I'm ready." I slip on my sports bra then my tank top and finally my vest.

I glance back at Ryder and give him a wave as I leave, to go rejoin the girls. He nods once then goes back to his booth. I smile as I walked alongside Bree and Lauren.

Lauren turns to look at me, "Did you get your first tattoo?" She asked me with a smile.

I nodded, "Yeah. It's on my shoulder," I smile back answering. Bree chuckles, "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah I guess I did, thanks," I say with a grin.

"Cool~ So now lets go zip lining," Bree cheers happily, and I laugh softly following after the girls.

The way we were walking it felt like we were going through a maze, a series of twists turns, and then finally it was into a building, up some stairs then into an elevator and all the way up onto the top floor.

Zeke and a bunch of other boys were there, "Hey you guys made it," they greeted us warmly. Shauna walked up to Zeke and gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek.

Lauren smirked, "Of course we did. We're not pansies. Are we?"

Bree grinned, "Yup. All those that are Dauntless material, are here." One of the Dauntless boys that are all pierced up and got a tattoo under his eye, "Then what's she doing here?" He motioned to me with a curious look.

"Hey she's Dauntless material. She dislocated a guy's knee." Bree argued, "C'mon Wayne give her a break."

The guy, Wayne grumbled something under his breath then glanced at me, "You ain't afraid of heights are you?"

"No," I answer crisply. Wayne smirked, "Good, then you get to go first," he said daringly.

I smirked back, "Fine." Douche, I add mentally.

Bree walks over with me then starts attaching the handle to me, tightening the straps and adjusting them, "You just have to remember to pull this when its time okay?" She asked me with a grin.

I nodded, "Got it." She fastens the belts on me so I don't fall, then before I know it Zeke and Bree help push me off.

Now I'm soaring.

It's all so fast, and the wind whips through me and whistles through my hair – I'm smiling so big it might get stuck that way.

I find myself looking down and see the grounds beneath me zip by fast. The wind picks up and I'm laughing and cheering loudly, "WHOO-HOO~!" I yell, not caring if someone can hear me.

I hear echoes of laughter, the other Dauntless seem to like this too; and I feel like I'm intoxicated and addicted to the thrill of this.

I think that this is by far my favorite activity now~

Its over far too quickly for my liking and I see that I'm about reach my target. "Pull it! Pull the harness!" The other Dauntless zip liners call out to me.

I do, and just like that…I'm grounded again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy, they belong to Veronica Roth, but I do own the OCs in this. Also I'll be posting other fanfics up on the website so please look for them if you like.**_

_THUD! _I land the first punch on the bag, then swing again and then begin to work out a combo of punches. Our fights are still progressing. It had been a few days – the next fight I had was with Sean's sidekick, the other boy from Candor, whose name I think was Carl.

I managed to beat him, seeing as how he moved a bit slower than me. I had even practiced in strengthening my stance, like Eric had pointed out.

The next fight I had was with Martin and I lost, but I didn't hold it against him, and he did apologize to me when I came to at the hospital.

He didn't do any serious damage.

But they weren't the ones I was worried about. Eric was by far the worst I faced, and I barely survived that; ever since he's been released from the hospital after his knee had been relocated, he started fighting more aggressively, he punched Sean in the eye that it swelled shut, but luckily, they got him to the hospital in time. And he beat Sean's friend to a bloody pulp that he had to be pulled and pried off of him by Pierce and Amar.

I bit the inside of my cheek and unleashed another combo onto the punching bag.

My last fight had been with Mia, and she was easy to beat – I just had to get out of her chokehold, since I had seen her and Four's fight, and avoid being in close proximity of her, keep on my feet and keep moving.

I wasn't proud of it but I also….may have put her in the hospital. I did go and apologize to her.

On that same day, Eric had to fight Martin, whom he beat until he lost consciousness, while Four had to fight Sean. So far Four had been the only one other than Eric to beat Sean, but that was because he kept getting up and it tired Sean out.

It was barely even a win.

Part of me was glad that I didn't have to fight Eric again, but the other part regretted it because now I think I might have unintentionally pushed him into sadism.

It won't be long now when he kills somebody in there. I feel like I've unleashed a monster.

My next fight would be with Sean, the bigger Candor boy, while Four's would be with Eric's.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"Nervous?" A loud gruff voice surprised me, making me jump. There stood Ryder, neutral as ever, "Ryder," I murmur.

"Hey kid," he said with a nod. I hadn't seen him except 2 days ago after that meeting in the tattoo parlor, when he gave me my first tattoo; that day we met, he started telling me about the simulations, how there will be a last one as a final test – the way to get through a fear simulation was for you to conquer it the way a Dauntless, then he asked me what some of my fears were. He even went into my fear landscape and helped teach me a way to get through them.

"Your fight with that big guy isn't it?" He asked me slowly. In response I nodded slowly, "Yeah," I mumbled and glanced at the punching bag.

"I heard you did good in the other fights," Ryder said with a crooked half smile at me.

"Who? Mia?" I asked incredulously, "She's Amity, and not exactly a challenge," guilt pinched at my sides for saying that – here Mia was the first girl I befriended here who was a transfer just like me, and I bag on her.

"I was talking about the other one. The Candor kid, heard you took him down," he said, "And that he was a bit bigger than you."

Well it certainly helped that he was not as big as Sean which was a big plus for me, so his brute strength was nearly nothing – it was like fighting Eric.

I think I now know why I didn't get Amity as a result; it wasn't cause I was I was mean or cynical or selfish, or even angry it was because I was a realist.

You can't achieve peace without some kind of sacrifice and maybe even a little bit of bloodshed.

Ryder was still standing behind me, "You know," he cleared his throat, "Before our society was created, a long time ago, like really millions of years actually, there were these ancient civilizations of people that were superstitious and war-like," he said lowly.

I glanced at him and saw that his eyes weren't two raging storms this time, but looked like the storm had passed and they looked calm.

"They used to believe in the natural world, especially animals, and they were gods," he explained, "And they'd get carvings of these animals on their monuments, or in designs on their clothes, and their bodies, like tattoos," he said.

"They believed that having these symbols would keep them out of harms way, and bring them luck or give 'em strength," he finished.

I'm still staring at him, unsure of what to say to all that. "So….they'd do all this, just to boost their confidence," I inquire him quietly.

He nodded, "You can say that, yeah. It was to get some vote of confidence. It made them feel safe, like their gods were watching them. Maybe its what you need a vote of confidence."

I snorted at that.

"These ancients also pierced their faces and other parts of their body," I pointed out cleverly with a wry smile.

It was the only thing that came to mind.

Ryder scoffed at that, and shrugged, "You're missing the point." I frown at that, "There's a moral to this story then?" I asked him.

He gave me a flat look, "You're supposed to be an Erudite," he pointed out.

I rolled my eyes, "Well not anymore if you haven't noticed," I mumbled.

"So," he shrugged, "Doesn't mean you should say goodbye to your brain," he said flatly, "I've seen the girls here, especially the dumb ones. You don't need to dumb yourself down just to be a Dauntless. Even we're not brainless morons," he clarified.

I think that was the most he's ever talked to me, at least the longest talk we had that wasn't about conquering your fears or him berating me.

"I know that," I started out, "But then which one of you invented zip-lining then," I grinned at him.

He grins back, "We did believe it or not. We can stand on our own. Let me tell you something Ev." He moved closer to me until he was standing in front of me, "Amity may send all of us our food. Abnegation may run our society. Candor may keep us honest. And Erudite does supply us with information and technology," he murmured all this to me, "But it is us that they all rely on for protection," he said, "They survive now, cause of us."

I stare into his eyes and nod slowly, because what he said makes sense.

Ryder pulls back away from me, "So…about that vote of confidence," he smirks at me. And it makes me smirk back, "Sure then. Why not?"

I follow him out of the gym and he walks with me past the cafeteria, and out of that building then walk down the street. We follow the familiar lane that leads to the tattoo parlor and, Ryder opens the door and lets me in first, then steps inside himself.

"Hey Ryder," a familiar voice hollers at him and I turn and see Ray walking towards us, he's sporting a tattoo that I can see only see a tip of on his shoulder blade. He must have gotten a new one.

"Hey Ray, how's training the Dauntless born goin'," Ryder asks him. Ray groans internally, "Man, don't even get me started," he sighs.

Ryder smiles crookedly, "That bad?"

Ray nodded, "Only a few show promise, the others are just…I don't even know if they're hearing me or not."

"Sorry pal," Ryder said then noticed me, "This is Eva, from the transfer class," he introduced me, I wave a little at him, curling my fingers a little, "Hi." I say quietly. What is it with all these intimidating men?

That somehow I manage to lose my tongue around them.

"Hey kid," Ray greeted me, "Huh, Eva right? I think Bree might have mentioned you," he smiled widely, "She's in my Dauntless-born group," he stated. I smile a little, "Yeah. She's great. Taught me how to zip-line," I say with a lame grin.

Ray chuckled, "Yeah that sounds like her," he says, and I find myself wondering how it is he speaks of her like he knows her on a personal level.

Then again he is her instructor so, it shouldn't be that alarming.

"Well it was great getting to meet you," Ray said, "I gotta go, I have a date, I wanna get to," he smiled then winked at Ryder who laughs, "Lucky man," Ryder observes humorously.

Ray gives us a wave then walks out of here. I turn back to look at Ryder and he motions for me to follow him to a chair, "Now pick one," he said, and holds out some tattoos of animals.

I see one that catches my eye, "That one." I point to it. It's a spiraling snake tattoo, and I'm immediately drawn to it.

"A snake tattoo?" He asks me with raised brows. I nod slowly, "A snake is considered powerful in the ancient world right?" I can see Ryder staring at my choice of design as he's thinking this over.

"Yeah it is. But depends on what kind of power it represents," he pointed out, "You sure you want it," he asks me.

I glance at him then slowly remove tank top then slip off my sports bra and cover my chest with it, "It's not just about power for me," I answer giving him a look. "Please," I say.

He nods once then bids me to turn around so that my back is facing him. I glance down at my shoulder, and see the lightning tattoo I wanted earlier – my first tattoo.

"So I'm curious," he starts out, "What did you mean when you told me that this tat was more than just about power?" Ryder asks as he's getting to work.

I don't answer right away and give him a sideways glance, then answer, "It's about conquering something that I'm not afraid of anymore," I explain. "The real power for me is not in belief, religion or even mythical superstitions," I state, "The power comes from harnessing and learning to control something that used to control you," I say softly.

His eyes meet mine as he hears me say the last part, and I see a flash of understanding in them, "A fear," he says knowingly.

I turn my head away from him, so he can't see my face; it was something my father once told me before when I was younger and had my accident in the Chem lab that almost blinded and deafened me, after that I told him how scared I was.

He helped me out so much….

Thinking of him brought me an ache to my stomach. It wasn't a pinch anymore.

Would he come and see me for my Visiting Day? And what about my mom? Alice? Grayson? Any of them?

I clenched my jaws, probably not.

I hurt them with my decision so I'll understand if none of them come. Well, at least Grayson isn't mad at me.

"Okay you're all done," Ryder's voice shook me out of my thoughts.

I look down and marveled at how the snake tattoo curled and twisted in a loop at the center of my back, then just as it was coming up to the space between my neck and shoulders it's mouth was opening revealing it's forked tongue.

"Thanks. It looks good," I said with a smile, "I love it." I admit. Ryder smiles at me, "It suits you," he said complimenting me, "Now get going." He ushers me off the seat and towards the door. "Good luck," he wishes me, and I'm reminded that my fight with Sean is tomorrow.

"Thanks. Later," I wave to him then walk out. Might as well go back to the gym and work in more training time.

I walked along the street stuffing my hands into my pockets and shiver at how the breeze picked up and how cold it was, I wish I could have grabbed my vest at least.

"Eva~!" I hear a feminine light airy voice call my name, and look around only to see Bree jogging towards me, "Hey," she grins at me toothily. "Hi," I grin back slightly, I won't hide it but I'm actually really glad to see her.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. Where were you?" She asks curiously.

I shrug, "Tattoo parlor. Why? Something happened?"

"No silly, I was looking for you cause I got invited to play a game tonight and I wanted to bring a friend along," she grinned at me, "Besides you need to get a life and socialize with someone other than that creep Eric, or your transfer buddies."

I was about to protest until she grabbed my arm and dragged me along with her, "What's this game even called," I yell after her, as we make our way to where we can catch the train.

She smiles impishly, "You'll see."

"The game is Dare," Lauren announces after we get there – I looked around and saw Four, with Amar, and Pierce is here too. And Ray is lounging on one of the seats. Didn't he have a date or something?

We're aboard a train car. Lauren's giggling as she sways at the motion but holds on to the handle with one hand while the other's holding a silver flask.

"First person picks someone and dares them to do something. Then that person has a drink, does the dare and gets a chance to dare someone else to do something. And when everyone has done their dare – or died trying, we get a little drunk and stumble home," Lauren grins widely.

Wait, drunk? I can't drink! I got a fight tomorrow. I can't fight Sean all hung over; huh, so this was what Bree meant when she said I need to get out more – I must be boring to these people.

"How do you win?" A Dauntless boy calls out as he's slouching against Amar, like it's nothing.

"You win by not being a pansycake," Lauren answers, "And hey here's another way to win, by not asking any stupid questions." She grins tartly.

"Okay as keeper of the alcohol I get to go first," Lauren turns to Amar, "Amar I dare you to go into the Erudite library while all the Noses," she pauses and glances at me, "No offense," she adds, and I shrug my shoulders, "Don't worry," I say. "While all the Noses are studying and scream something obscene." She tosses the flask to him.

I raise my brows so high they probably disappear into my hairline – oh this I have to see~

Amar takes a swig of it and shouts over the cheers, "Just tell me when we get to the right stop!"

I lean back and watch the scenery pass by, "Hey," I jerk and turn to face the owner of the voice, it's Lauren, "Hi," I wave at her weakly.

She grins at me, "So I see Bree managed to drag you to come along," she chuckled.

I smile, "She's nice to do that," I say politely. Lauren grins, "Yeah she is. She always struck me as the type of girl who was suited for Amity though. I mean she's like real sweet you know?" She responds, and I nod.

"I kind of thought that she'd go with Lena," Lauren said thoughtfully.

"Who?" I ask out of curiosity. "Lena, her best friend. She used to be a Dauntless." Lauren says flipping her hair back.

"Used to be? What happened to her," I asked stealing a glance at Bree, as she's engaged in a lively discussion with Shauna, Four, and Zeke. If I had to guess she must have suffered a fall when trying to jump off this train.

"She transferred to Amity," Lauren answered.

Well, that's not as bad as dying, I supposed, "Maybe they'll meet again," I say for some reason sounding rather optimistic.

Lauren smiled, "Yeah maybe. She's my friend too." She glances then smirks, "Looks like we're here," she grins at me, "C'mon," she shouts then jumps and soon I follow after her and then Bree lands next to me then Ray, and all the others.

I see Amar elbowing Four in a friendly way, saying a comment to him then holding out the flask.

Abnegation never tasted alcohol, so I'm a bit surprised when I see how quickly Four takes it, but not surprised at the slight twist of his face. I turn my head and follow the others, somehow I'm walking next to Pierce, who glances at me and smirks, "Hey girly."

I roll my eyes – of course my instructor would be here, "Hey yourself," I chuckle dryly.

I look around and feel nostalgic and homesick again, "How does it feel to be home again?" Pierce asks me.

I look up at him and see him observing the sector as well, with an odd look on his face, that I'm almost tempted to question it. Almost. But I want to be done living up to the Erudite stereotype, which means I have to learn to shed everything about Erudite off, with the exception of the important parts.

"Different," I answer looking around.

Pierce nods as he walks alongside me then we all make it inside the library and peer over from behind a wall and see them sitting at tables studying or reading or speaking very quietly.

For a brief moment I can picture my brother sitting here everyday of his life, from when he was a teenager to the adult he is right now leaning over his stack of books reading.

I remember coming here too, whenever I needed to do a school assignment, but spending my all my free time here at my leisure? No. I didn't but suddenly I find myself wishing that I did.

Looking away I see Four staring at a portrait of Jeanine Matthews – her hair is pulled back tightly and her blue jacket is buttoned just beneath her throat.

She looks so prim and proper. Elegant.

I saunter over to him and stand behind him, "She doesn't look like that completely," I say softly, and Four glances at me with interest. We never had good or long conversations, but now would seem like the best time to try.

"Really?" He asks quietly. "Yeah. She looks colder," I answer softly.

He nodded then glanced back at it, "Maybe she puts on airs," he mused, and my lips quirk upwards, "She looks scared in here," he states, and I glance at him then back at it.

Scared huh?

"Yeah she does," I agree suddenly – whether its due to her fear of Divergents or not, it could be anything…or maybe, she's afraid of rather astute Abnegation members. If they can see and pick up on this fear, then maybe she really is putting on airs for the public and for the other Erudite.

"Hey, Noses! Check this out!" I hear Amar's voice and both Four's and my heads snap in his direction.

The other Erudite in the lobby glance up from their books and screens, and suddenly Amar drops his pants and moons them. The other Dauntless are laughing, as my mouth drops open. I hear laughter and I glance over at Four, even he's laughing.

I find my lips curling upwards, and soon I'm shaking with laughter. I think I laugh until I'm crying, "Oh my god~!" I yell between the laughs.

Then we all break into a run with the Erudite chasing after us, they give up after a block and we all stop in the alley, leaning against the walls. I'm on my knees still giggling like a kid, "Oh god~!" I say, and Bree comes up behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

We're all still grinning and laughing. "I think…," I say between giggles and deep breaths, "I think I'm peeing….," and then I throw my head back a laugh as I cup the space between my legs.

Soon there's new laughter and they're all laughing with me. Even Shauna is, "I misjudged you Eva," she shouts in between laughter.

Soon after it's Shauna's turn. I grin at her and she smiles back at me. Who would have thought all it would take to win her over is this~?

After Shauna it was Zeke, then it was Lauren, now it's Bree – she's been dared by her to give Four a nice big kiss. According to Lauren she wanted to see Four's face turn even redder than usual.

"Thank god I got a boyfriend," she chuckled then went to go and kiss Four; from what I could see it was a long deep one, and it looked like Four enjoyed it a little.

"Welcome to Dauntless cutie~ Everything here is a lot simpler," she gave his lip a playful nip then pulled away with a wink. I laugh softly now that I'm all loosened up – I won't lie I did take a few small swigs of that flask and feel a bit better now.

I watch her go and take a seat next to Ray. Weird.

But I dismiss it, once I hear Pierce's voice, "Okay is it my turn now," he asked with a grin.

Lauren nods, "Yup it is, hon~" she says handing him the flask, "What's your dare," she asks. Pierce looks thoughtful, "Who hasn't gone yet," he smiles wickedly, and I feel my buzz going – what will I be dared to do?

"Ray, man you haven't gone yet," Pierce grins at the broad shouldered ruggedly handsome guy, "I dare you to…..streak across the Abnegation sector naked," he says.

I gape at him, holy crap~ Those stiffs are in trouble, I grin to myself and risk seeing Four's reaction.

His face looks priceless.

Ray gives Pierce a glare, and takes the flask and nods, "Fine," he takes a heavy swig from it, then starts to take off his jacket vest and tank top.

"Strip~!" Bree cheers drunkenly, as Lauren and Shauna cheer and whistle with her.

I've never seen a naked man before, so I can't help that my eyes are widening as I see Ray strip off his own clothes until he's bare-ass naked in front of us then he runs to the Abnegation sector.

We wait for a little while and soon hear shouts and yells, and a loud murmur of disgust, and cries and jeers of disapproval:

"Oh my god!" someone shouts. "Delinquents!"

Amar chuckles loudly, "Pierce you are gonna get him murdered in his sleep," he jokes. Pierce is in hysterics.

I hope they don't assemble an angry mob and come after us. I see Bree and the girls laughing and leaning against each other, and I start to laugh lightly myself.

Ray runs back and grabs his clothes, and slips them on hurriedly, "You're a dead man Pierce," he threatens darkly.

Pierce simply smirks, "That was fantastic," he calms down, "So who's next?" I look around its only Pierce, Four and myself left.

Everyone else has already gone.

Bree smiles and grins, "It's Ray's turn to make a dare," she said impishly.

Ray suddenly grins and takes the flask, "This one's for Pierce." Ah, payback time~ Pierce sighs, "Of course." He really should have seen that coming.

"Okay Pierce I dare you to…," Ray smirks as he thinks it over, "Go into the Candor sector with a megaphone and do something obscene and obnoxious that'll grab their attention," he snickers.

Pierce sighed, "Alright fine who's got a megaphone?"

Lauren grinned and pulled one out, "Here ya' go man." He takes it and we go marching into the Candor sector, then we wait behind an alley and watch him.

Pierce walks into the center of the Candor sector and we wait as we watch him. My eyes peer at him curious to see what he's going to do.

He raises the megaphone up to his lips and sighs then turns it on and begins:

"ATTENTION CANDOR FACTION," his voice resonates and echoes through the compound, making the few of his audience look up, "THIS IS A MESSAGE BROUGHT TO YOU BY US ENCOURAGED BY HONESTY. THIS IS OUR OPINION ON YOU."

He swallows hard then before any of us can guess he belches into the megaphone and the sound is amplified loudly against the sector's buildings.

And like always we are all laughing like maniacs – that was hilarious~!

He's finished, and smirks, "THAT IS ALL~"

With that he runs, "Let's go now~" he laughs, and soon we are once again being chased by the Candor. He grinned and faced Ray, "How was that?"

"That was the best you could do?" Ray arched a brow at him in question. Pierce shrugged in response, "Well I could have farted, but I didn't have anything in me," he chuckled.

Everyone laughed at that bit.

We catch the train and are laughing like idiots. "Okay so who's next~?" Bree is grinning widely.

Shauna grinned, "It's my turn and I," she thinks looking over between now just myself and Four, "Eva," she points at me with a grin, "I dare you to um~," she's thinking. "She can do a lap dance?" One of the boys offer with a drunken laugh, and I feel my face burn at that. I'm not Stiff, I know exactly what that was, and it was already embarrassing – I couldn't give a lap dance, I can't even dance!

"Who though?" Shauna asked with a chuckle.

Ray smirked for a second, "I got one," he said with a chuckle, "Pierce~" he said simply with a twisted crooked grin. Pierce grinned, "Hey yeah how about me~?" He suggested smugly.

Amar shook his head, "Come now Pierce, she's your initiate," he reminded him.

Pierce giggled, "Not right now she isn't," he pointed out.

What? I'm going to give a lap dance to my instructor? "No way," I said with a furious shake of my head. "You can't get out of it otherwise you're a pansycake~," Lauren grinned at me. I frown at her, "Okay for how long?" I asked.

"C'mon now, be nice to me darling," Pierce crooned at me with a wink.

"What'll you do if I'm not," I asked him arching a brow. And I suddenly wish I hadn't asked cause his smirk faded at that, "I'll remember it tomorrow when I'm your instructor," he said to me giving me a grave look.

I blink at him widely – did he just blackmail me? "Fine," I snap, and get up. Bree hands me the flask and I nod, "That should help," she said with a smile.

Well, here goes nothing; I take a long swig and then hand it back to Bree and make my way over to a grinning Pierce.

It doesn't even help the fact that he's handsome….

Well that…was something… I hope I never have to do something that humiliating again. I shudder inwardly at the reminder of it – I could tell Pierce enjoyed it though.

I hope the others never have to hear about this. God, what will my parents say?

Sighing all I ever want to do at this point is just get back to our dorms and crawl under the covers and sleep.

Luckily Four was the last one to go – he was dared to get a tattoo, and apparently his first one.

Tori wasn't so happy to do that.

But after Four got his tattoo we all started stumbling home, and I hadn't even realized it but I ended up losing Bree, Ray, Amar, Pierce, Shauna, Zeke, Lauren, and the others, and now it was only Four and I. I leaned against his shoulder slightly for support, and we soon made it back to our dorms and he crawled into bed and I crawled into mine.

The last thing I saw as I closed my eyes was the color blue for some reason…

My mind was so exhausted as I slept through a deep and heavy sleep – my head felt numb as the alcohol started to wear off, but it was getting better.

I didn't even register that a heavy weight pressed down onto my bed, and for a moment I felt like I was back home, and my mom was coming in to wake me up. Suddenly I feel something leap on me, and it presses it's heavy weight onto me, and something else, muffles my screaming,

"Grab her quick!" A voice hisses at someone, "Grab this bitch's legs!" I started thrashing around as I'm lifted up, wrapped up in sheets and something soft pressing down on my face, cutting off my breathing.

I just feel hands on me and all over me. At least 2 pairs of them, so there must be two people. I start kicking and scratching, clawing and punching.

"Hold her still," another voice shouted in a hiss.

I started swinging and kicking like my life depended on it, and it earned some good results, cause I think I kicked something. "OW! You bitch," he yelled and threw his weight down onto my body.

I was close to blacking out, but then I heard the weight being pulled off of me, and a gasp, "E-" they got cut off sharply by a cracking, then they groaned.

I landed on the cold hard ground and could now finally breathe. I pulled the soft muffler off me, and saw it was a pillow.

Hearing more punches and cracks, I looked up and my eyes widened. "Eric?" I say slowly.

He's punching Carl unconscious then looks up at me – I can't help but stare at his face. The corner of his lip is slightly red with a new piercing he must have gotten. Our eyes meet and he slowly gets off of Carl, who looks really bruised.

Eric's standing in front of me now, and is staring down at me, while I'm sitting on the ground looking up at him. One of us realizes that neither of us is moving so he crouches down on his knees, "You okay?"

I stare at him dumbfounded – he…just saved me. "…" I nodded my head slowly, and notice its just Carl there, but I felt and heard 2.

So where's the other one?

I guess that was when it hit me that the other one was Sean and he was also the ringleader behind this.

Glancing back quickly at Eric, I feel my throat burn, "They…," I start out hoarsely.

Eric nods grimly, "Tried to kill you," he finishes for me. I stare at him and by the grim twist of his lips, and the coldness in his eyes, it wasn't just as simple as that – I only wish it was.

They wouldn't just kill me. This wasn't Erudite or Candor, where people meant what they say or did.

This was Dauntless, anything and everything went here… And what was to stop them from doing more before killing me…?

I'm still staring at Eric as all these thoughts surface in my mind, and before I know it I lunge at him and bury myself in the folds of his clothed chest, and cry. He's moved back in surprise by the force of our colliding bodies, and I can tell I've stunned him.

He tenses up for a long time, but I still don't let go of him.

Awkwardly and slowly he wrapped an arm around me, and rubbed my back slowly, as I'm crying. It felt good to be held like this, even if it was Eric holding me like this. Not even that could erase the fact that he just saved me.

Now, I feel like such a weakling – here I am bawling like a coward. I slowly start to pull away, "Sorry," I mumble under my breath and wipe at my eyes furiously.

He stares into my eyes and shrugs once, "Fine." I look around, and notice that we're still sitting on the ground, "Thanks…," I say quietly.

His eyes peer into mine, and for some reason I'm drawn to them, I don't even notice him inhaling sharply, "Your welcome." After all this, now we both feel awkward, like we don't know how to approach what almost happened.

I break the silence, "Should we tell someone?" I asked him quietly.

Eric stares at me and I can almost hear his answer, 'It's up to you. Do you want to?' But that doesn't come instead what comes is this, "No."

I'm surprised by his answer and frown, "Why not? I mean what they did they almost-," I'm cut off, "Exactly. This was an almost, if they ganged up on you, or tried to attack you that would be proven, cause you got the evidence on you. Even being strangled would have shown up on your neck in marks, but all you got was a pillow pressed down on you, no fists, no punches not even a scratch, but even that could be explained as you simply being in the fights during initiation," Eric stated darkly, "Suffocation doesn't show up as evidence on a person," he explained.

I stare at him; so no one would believe me, and it'd be my word against 2 Candor, so who would anyone believe? Me? Or them?

My frown deepens when I realize that Eric's right. "So what am I supposed to do," I ask morosely.

"You can hurt him back if that's what you want," Eric suggests to me, making me look up at him in surprise, "What? You mean attack them the way they attacked me?"

Eric shakes his head, "No. Hurt them the way we both know how," he smirks at me, "Beat him tomorrow in your fights," he says.

I stare at him and know immediately that he's right again.

What's a better way to hurt someone? Humiliate them~

I slowly smirk to myself. Eric's grinning at me, then he stands up, and I'm craning my neck to look up at him, "Hey," I say to him.

"Yeah?" Eric asked me.

"Why'd you…save me?" I wondered curiously.

He stares at me then smiles crookedly, "To prove my point," he snickers at me.

What? I scowl and slowly get up myself and am standing in front of him, that I can feel the heat coming off his body, "What point?"

Eric shakes his head, "That we should work together," he says then he grins at me, "And that I was right about that all along."

I glare at him, "So you just saved me just to prove something? So now you expect me to do something for you?" I demand. Eric's staring at me in what I can understand and identify as amusement, "You're starting to catch on," he smirks at me.

My glare deepens at him and I stalk off back to my bunk and lie down and cover myself with the blanket.

I hear Eric's footsteps moving towards his bed, then his body fall onto the mattress, but he doesn't seem to be sleeping yet. I ignore the shudder of my spine as I start to close my eyes, and fall into an uneasy sleep.

Tomorrow will be the last round of the fights.

I barely got any sleep last night; I didn't really feel like sleeping after the attack by Sean and Carl.

Instead I'm one of the first to get up and just throw on my black Dauntless jeans and sports bra. I throw my head back and tie my long dark sable hair back in a high ponytail.

I go to the bathrooms and wash my face – I'm ready.

Leaving the restroom I head to the cafeteria and grab a light but energizing breakfast at the cafeteria. The doors open and I see Sean walking in looking extremely guiltless; as opposed to his sidekick, it looks like he got away without a scratch.

The son of a bitch…

Can he really think he can just get away with this?

Well…

I'm going to prove him wrong.

My eyes burn into his skull and I think he can feel it, cause he turns around. Our eyes meet, and for a minute he smirks.

I give him a hard, and dark eyed stone-faced glare, my mouth in a completely flat line.

He's dead…

His smirk drops slowly, I see him looking a bit uncomfortable. Good.

"Hey Eva…?" I hear Martin's voice, "You okay?" I didn't even notice him taking a seat next to me.

"Yeah," I answer coolly.

Soon I'm done with my breakfast and walk out of the room, and head towards the training room.

I'm practicing my combos and my uppercut punches, seeing as how Sean is a big guy I'll need something fast to take him out, and something he'll never see coming.

"You're here early," I turn and see Amar, looking at me with raised brows. I wonder how long he's been here. "Yeah," I say tonelessly. Maybe I should stop with the monosyllabic phrases.

Amar's lips quirk in the strangest way, "And you're pissed," he guesses.

I smile thinly, "What gave me away?" I ask sarcastically.

Amar snorts out a laugh, "Your behavior, and the fact that you're here early, means you wanna kick some ass," he said.

My lips purse together tightly, and Amar approaches me, "Just promise not to kill anybody here," he says humorously.

I shrug, "No promises." I say nonchalantly, "But I'll try not to."

Soon the other initiates file in after him, and Pierce is at the end of the crowd – the first fight is between Four and Eric.

I don't know who to root for, cause honestly I want to focus on myself and my own fight; so maybe I really am cut out for Dauntless instead of Abnegation – I couldn't imagine living a quiet life, helping out my community, or volunteering to help out the factionless.

I sit with the crowd, and notice Four's not here yet. Until he comes through the doors holding his head, he looks like hell. Must be hung over. Poor guy.

"Nice of you to join us," Amar comments to Four, making him stare at the older man. He points to Four's shoes, "Tie your shoes," he orders, "And don't waste anymore of our time."

Eric's cracking his knuckles, across the arena and Four quickly steps onto it to not waste anymore time. Amar steps back and Eric rushes at Four fast, hitting him square in the jaw. Four stumbles, holding his face. Then he puts up his hands to block the next punch. Then Eric kicks at him and Four tries to evade it but to no avail, and the foot kicks him in the rib.

"This is easier than I thought it would be," Eric scoffs arrogantly.

The comment has some sobering effect on Four and he delivers an uppercut into his stomach. Eric hits Four in the head and he land on the ground from losing balance.

Then Eric smirks and murmurs something to him that none of us can hear.

Four looks outraged, and his eyes are blurry.

Eric hits him again intending to go for his head, but ends up hitting Four's collarbone.

I glance at Martin and Mia and they both look engrossed in this fight – a blooming rivalry.

Even I admit this is an interesting fight.

Eric smirks, "Should I tell them?" I frown, wondering what he means. Tell them what? Who is them? "Get everything out in the open?" Eric taunts.

Then he mouths something to Four between his teeth but I can't make it out. What is everything? Is he blackmailing him? Get what out in the open I wonder again.

From there, that is what seems to get Four going, without thinking he grabs Eric and starts swinging at him and swinging again, and again, and again. This is blind rage, I recognize, kind of like what I have now, but only different.

He doesn't even seem to hear Eric's shouts and tries to wrench away from him – my frown deepens. Four kicks him hard in the side and Eric topples over in a bloodied battered mess. This…was the guy that…for lack of a better word, saved me.

And now he might end up dead, neither Pierce or Amar are stopping him.

Four's about to go for one more kick and before I can register, I feel myself get up and move and grab Four's shoulder roughly, "That's enough," I yell roughly, making him turn around to look at me, incredulously, "You won that's it," I warn him with a threatening edge to my voice, that not even Four doesn't recognize.

I hold his gaze and he glares at me, and gets out of my hold, shrugging me off, "There's nothing left to prove," I say sharply.

Four reels back and he knows I'm right, then glances back at Eric – I follow his gaze, his eyes look glazed over and unfocused as he gurgles slightly through the blood. I take a look at Four, and a strange horror flickers across his face, or at least I think that's what it is.

He storms out of the room without being dismissed, leaving me in the center of the arena, with Eric struggling to move behind me.

He gasps and I finally take notice of him and bend down to his level as he struggles to support himself on his knees and elbows, "Now we're even," I murmur to him.

He knows what this is about.

This makes him look up, and his eyes meet mine and they look focused, but he doesn't say anything. Amar and Pierce soon come onto the arena, "Well…, I hope that is the last time, anyone has to get in the middle of a fight," Pierce says snidely aiming the comment at me pointedly.

I roll my eyes at him, "You really want an unconscious body, or possibly a dead one on your hands," I retort.

I look over at Eric, "He should get to a hospital," I say, and Eric shakes his head furiously.

Looks like his pride's been wounded, and I really don't care.

"Amar take Eric down to the hospital," Pierce says, "I'll hold the next round." Amar nods, "Alright," he helps Eric get to his feet and walks out with him.

Pierce turns to Sean, "You're up next," he smirks, and I feel myself smirking too, remembering the events from last night.

The bastard won't know what hit him. I move across the arena and wait for him, "Come on," I say fiercely in a low and angry voice.

Pierce throws his head back and laughs, "Sounds like she wants a piece of you," he nudges Sean, "Alright you heard the lady don't keep her waiting," And Sean straightens up and steps onto the platform with me.

I eye him with a dark narrow stare, and he huffs, "I'm not scared of some small skinny little Noser bitch," he huffs arrogantly, then starts coming at me.

I crack my knuckles and get into position and start planning out my next moves.

He swings a punch at me, I dodge it, he swings another one I move my head, then get into his range and deliver a hard and swift punch to his nose. It cracks, so I'm sure I broke it, but the movement stuns him.

Sean's bigger than I am so he's slower.

I smirk and deliver a series of other punches to his face, his face will look really discolored now.

I may have some strength on me, but my main weapon is speed.

Sean lets out a guttural sound and lunges at me and tries to tackle me down, and pin me down on the ground, and for a moment it works but then I kick him in his stomach, and at his side, then I punch him in the eye, he groans and holds his face.

As I expected his reaction is slower. Now I know his weakness.

I press my foot up against his chest and push him off me then jump to my feet, then I deliver an uppercut to his face and he gasps and veers back.

I'm waiting for him now, I've already blindsided him, I wouldn't feel right kicking him while he's down otherwise that wouldn't be a really challenging fight. I smirk at that realization – that's what made me anticipate this. I want a challenge.

Or maybe it's the adrenaline in me, and all the anger from last night.

"Thought you weren't afraid of me," I taunt him with a low hiss, and a sneer.

Come at me big dumb oaf~

He looks at me with blazing eyes and I smirk, he charges at me and I laugh as I evade him, which makes him lose his footing.

Now I'm only playing with him, this is too much fun.

I leer at him, then he charges at me again, I slip under his arm quickly, that he almost misses me, I smile then deliver a high kick at his face, and he topples downward.

Glaring over at him I move closer and kick him in the stomach, and hear a couple ribs crack, then I kick him again and this time it goes to his face, making his neck snap around and he moves to rest on the ground.

Smirking I bend down to his level and bring my lips to his ear, "That was for last night. Do that again, they'll find your body at the bottom of the Chasm." I whisper.

I honestly don't know what possessed me to do any of this or even make a threat like that; this isn't me, and I know this, and by the look on Pierce's face, he's thinking the same thing, like he doesn't even recognize me either.

I'm not sure if I like this me or not, but I can tell that I really can fit in here. That I do belong here.

Now I'm sure – I can get by without my Divergence. I'm Dauntless because I'm a survivor, and because of my instincts.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Divergent Trilogy, they belong to Veronica Roth, but I do own some of the OCs including my own, Eva. **_

"You know," I heard Shauna's voice from across my bunk as she went to go sit down, "Eric's missing some teeth. Our Four did a number on him," she said quietly as she sent a look at me, which I didn't really see.

"Yeah," I replied listlessly – of course, I knew that, I was there, I mentally scolded to her…I gotta stop having these mental conversations with myself.

"I just wonder why you had to stop him," Shauna drawled on. Ah. So that was the reason why she was talking to me right now. Not that our acquaintanceship hasn't improved. Ever since that game, we did gradually begin to talk more, but it wasn't the same as talking to Bree.

And yeah, I'll admit that I missed her.

"So why did you?" Shauna asked.

I frown as I stare up at the ceiling, "Why did I what?" I inquired back lazily.

Shauna shot me an exasperated look, "Why did you stop Four from beating Eric unconscious?" She specified.

I shrugged quietly, lying against my bunk; good question. Why did I stop him?

"I don't know," I said simply.

Shauna makes a noise of surprise, "Shocking. A Nose doesn't have an answer or know one? The world is finally coming to an end then," she joked.

My frown deepens at that, "I'm not saying I don't have an answer, I do, I just don't know if I can tell you. Much less explain it," I quipped at her.

"Sheesh, you're in a mood. Okay then amuse me. Try and explain it to me," Shauna snipes back at me.

I sigh as I sit up and lean my back against my pillow, after propping it up, "Well, to put it this way. Eric….," I sighed.

How exactly am I supposed to tell her that Eric saved my ass, and I was returning the favor – its not like the words Eric and save go in the same sentence.

Shauna leaned forward and propped herself on her elbows as she lied down on her stomach, "What?"

I scratch my head, "He…sort of helped me out you know? I ended up getting into this really bad thing," I say, "And he….got me out of it," I finish, looking at her face, waiting for an answer.

Both of her brows shot up in surprise, "Eric helped someone…? You? He never helps anyone," she said loudly, "But why?"

I sighed, "Well…, he didn't do it for free if that's what you mean. There was a catch," I explained.

Shauna nodded, "Uh huh, there usually is with someone like him," she gave her input. "What was it though?" she asked me.

I scratched the back of my head – my hair was untied today, since the fights were over and tomorrow would be Visiting Day, I figured Amar didn't want any of us to look like car accidents to our folks when they would come to see us.

"He offered a deal," I say uncertain if I should be telling any of this to Shauna. Would I be in trouble for telling her any of this?

"A deal. What kind? He helps you so you help him," she assumed then her eyes widened, "It wasn't like one of those, sex deals right?" She asked her mouth gaping slightly, "You know that if it is you can tell one of the instructors, and he can get tossed out for that," she said quickly.

I blanch at that, "What? No. I mean, no it wasn't one of those kind of deals, at least I think it wasn't. I think that he offered a deal for us to work together to get through initiation together," I explained.

Shauna looked skeptical of that, "This is still the same Eric we're talking about right?" She arched a brow.

I snort, and begin to doubt whether she's right or not – what if it's all an act, what if Eric's lying; for all I know he might still be reporting everything to his father or Jeanine, and he's spying on us to see who's….

I swallow hard at that. But I've been really careful haven't I? We passed the fear landscape, and the combat, there wasn't that much left was there?

Shauna seeing my face, immediately switched subjects, "You know that you really did a number on Sean," she said to me.

I smile slightly at that – I knew that too.

"I've actually been wondering something," Shauna said, "I've actually tried to ask Bree to help me out with something, but she said that she was too busy. Can you believe that? Normally she wouldn't miss out on something like this," she shot me a look of disbelief.

"What was it?" I asked her. What did Bree refuse to do?

"Well I got this fight with this one girl named Ashley, or she calls herself Ash, to look and sound tough," she rolled her eyes, "And she's a freakin' Godzilla," she whined, "She can crush me, and fighting isn't my best trait if you haven't noticed. And only one person in our initiate class, could beat her and that was Bree," she said, "I tried to ask her for help, but she couldn't."

It did sound like something Bree would get involved with or help, and for her not to did seem strange.

"So is this Ashley like a bully or something," I asked, glancing at her.

"Uh, yeah she is, and she doesn't even look like a girl at all," Shauna grumbled. I smile a little, "Well…to be honest I'm not all that great a fighter myself," I admitted and she gave me a 'yeah-right' look.

"I mean I'm not exactly like Four," I say, "Have you tried to ask him. He's got experience in taking on bigger opponents. And it looks like he knows what he's doing," I say to her.

Shauna sighed, "Yeah but you got that experience too. I mean you did take down Eric, Mia, Carl, and Sean," she pointed out.

I shake my head, "The fight with Eric as a draw, I dislocated his knee, and was lucky not to get penalized for that," I say, "That was a tie. No win no loss," I say, "And as for Mia…," I pause – in the fight with her it was actually easy to take her down, "With Mia I knew her one strength and weakness," I said quietly.

"The fight with Carl, I had almost lost if I hadn't gotten back up and tried to stay on my feet," I explained, "And with Sean that was a matter of timing and speed, and a lot of anger," I clasp my mouth shut at that.

Of course Shauna didn't know about my little incident, so why did I have to blurt that out?

"Anger?" Shauna frowns curiously, "Why anger?"

I shrugged, "Just a smart-mouthed Candor, trying to intimidate me you know? Candor doing what they do best. Running their mouths," I smirk at her, "He dragged my family into it. So I got my payback," I explained.

Shauna smirked back at me, "Way to go," she giggled, "Maybe you do belong here," she grinned at me.

I smile and lean my head back and lie down – I am going to sleep today. Though a small niggling feeling keeps trying to tell me something; Shauna and my earlier talk about Eric, only got me thinking about him again.

He was still in the hospital.

Maybe I should see him.

The only thing that's stopping me from seeing him was his latest reaction to me stopping his fight – would he be embarrassed or angry with me?

I really didn't have a right to stop it, so why did I?

Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment, or maybe some part of me….feels sorry for him.

I did kind of notice that he doesn't have that many friends here.

"So what do you think I should do?" Shauna asked cutting off my thoughts and for once I was glad that she did.

"About Ashley?" I guessed.

"Yeah," Shauna persisted.

I lean back and close my eyes, "I think you should go ask Four for some lessons. I mean the only other lesson I can offer you is…either think ahead or get angry," I say.

Shauna thought for a moment and nodded, "Actually both of your advices work for me, both the thinking and the anger thing, I can do both and channel them perfectly," she smirked, then got up, "Thanks Ev."

With that she bounded out of the room, leaving me alone – she was probably going to go look for Four, and if I knew him at least a little, he would be in the training gym arena.

I lie myself back down on my bunk and close my eyes for a moment; what would tomorrow be like I wonder.

Would any of my family show up?

Or would I be just like Four? He's not expecting anyone to show up from what he hinted.

Does that mean I shouldn't expect anyone either?

I still remember the look Alice sent at me – she looked unbelievably furious and betrayed too.

I felt the guilt splinter inside of me and throw the blanket over me deciding to head to sleep early; I was pretty sure I wouldn't be jumped in my sleep again.

Even if they didn't come, it would just have to be something I'd have to accept…

**The Next Day: Visiting Day**

I was up bright and early before the other initiates and went to take a hot shower; I dried myself off, then stared at my reflection – to say that my body had changed was a great understatement.

My dark sable hair had grown a bit longer, and seemed to have a healthy shine to it, whereas back in Erudite it looked thin and mousy, but now it was lush, soft and thick and it curled at the tips slightly. My body didn't exactly look soft anymore filled with soft curves but was hard, and firmed by the physical activities. I looked more leaner, toned and athletic, and my curves were more curved than first appeared. I lost a lot of fat, and weight on me, but was able to make most of it up in muscle. But it wasn't just my body that changed. It was my face too – at first it was more round and childlike, a baby face, but now it actually looked a bit hollowed out, and my cheekbones were high and more defined, my mouth and lips though still looked the same, full and lush, and pink. My eyes looked more cautious and wary.

I looked more like a woman than a 16 year old, that I couldn't help but wonder what my family would think if they saw me now.

Would they recognize me at all?

Even a little?

I shook my head and started dressing in my tank top then my vest and slipped on my skinny black Dauntless pants, then brushed through my long dark hair.

I gazed at my reflection a bit longer wondering if I should put on any make up – I have some from what Bree had loaned me and let me borrow. I grabbed a small make up bag I had brought along with me, and started to apply some eyeliner, and then mascara. The next was concealer, and some light blush and then finally the last touch was some pink lipstick.

Taking a look at myself, I couldn't help but marvel at my appearance; I wasn't trying to be vain but even I could see some appeal and beauty in myself which wasn't a bad thing.

Today I decided to leave it unbound. I was getting tired of tying it back all the time.

I exited the bathroom, and headed towards the Pit floor.

There were clusters of people there I could see Mia and Martin greeting their parents, Sean's parents weren't there, but Carl's were. I looked around for any Erudite but didn't see any.

You should have been prepared for this, I told myself, as I felt the stirrings of disappointment brewing in me. I was about to turn around and leave until I saw something.

Someone. I frowned and made my way past a visitor and my eyes widened as I held my breath.

I wasn't imagining things. Those blue clothes, that mop of combed back dark curly short hair, and those dark eyes.

The other thing I saw familiar was the chin that resembled my own slightly, and bulging hooked nose.

It was my dad! I felt my eyes sting slightly as it dawned on me – he came for me. He came to see me~

But he was alone, I didn't spot anyone else with him…

I broke out into a run, heading straight for him.

He looked around neutrally then noticed me coming at him and raised his brows; he didn't recognize me at first until his eyes met mine, and then his face flashed with recognition and only then did he get up and jog towards me, his face lighting up with his crooked smile.

Once I reached him his arms enveloped me, bringing me into his embrace, my arms automatically circled around his waist, and we held the hug for a while, and squeezed until I jumped back with a light yelp.

My side still stung from be bruise I got from my fight with Sean.

"Are you alright Evangeline?" My father asked me seeing my action, but I didn't hear his question I only heard my full name, and already felt nostalgic at someone calling me that.

"Yeah I am. Really," I smiled at him brightly.

He gives me a look and shakes his head, "How have you been?" he smiles down at me and pats the top of my head, brushing his fingers against my scalp in the familiar stroking notion.

"I'm alright," I reply, "And you?"

"Not too bad. It's different not having you home, I'll admit to that," he smiled at me with a grin, as he leads me away, "Have you made any new friends," he asked me.

"A couple, yeah," I answer lightly.

He nods with a hum, "That's good. Then it looks like you're adjusting well here," he said to me with a chuckle.

As we walked a little further, my dad stops us both when we almost walk into Pierce, "Oh hello," dad says with a slightly pleasant surprise.

Pierce smiles at myself then at my dad, "Hello. Sorry for the run in," Pierce said, "I'm Pierce Bryant," he introduced himself.

My dad smiled and shook his hand, "I'm Adam Zedler. Nice to meet you," he smiled back at him.

"Ah, you must be Eva's father," Pierce smiled, "And likewise."

My dad gives a crooked but bright smile, "Yes. Tell me how is my daughter doing here?" dad asks with a grin – he didn't even comment on the new nickname.

"She's doing well," Pierce admitted with chuckle, "Yeah, she's progressing very well. She's a bit of a tough scrappy lil' girl," my instructor joked.

I felt my face heat up at that – Pierce's eyes met mine and his grin made me look down bashfully.

My dad laughed at that loudly, "Oh I don't doubt that. She takes after both myself and my wife."

Pierce laughs at that, "Well, that I believe," he said.

Dad chuckled, "Well it was nice meeting you, Mr. Bryant. Please excuse us. I'd like to catch up with my daughter, but I'd like to talk more later," my dad said cordially with a grin.

Pierce smiled, "Excellent, then yes, I'll leave you to catching up. Enjoy," he waved to the both of us, my dad waved back to him.

He turned to me and smiled crookedly, "He seems to be such a nice man," he commented.

I smile despite my brief embarrassment, "Only when he's not poking fun," I looked down sheepishly as my dad started walking with me.

I bit my lip, not sure of what to say, "Where is everyone else," I asked curiously, looking around.

"They couldn't come," he admitted with a sigh, "Your mom had to go pick up your sister, and your brother works. You know that he's in Jeanine's inner circle now right?" He glanced at me with his dark eyes.

I nodded slowly at that – of course, my brother would always be praised for his intelligence, but that was nothing to be envied, at least I didn't feel anything of the kind.

"How are they all?" I ask quietly.

My dad grows quiet then clears his throat, "They are all fine…" he hesitates. I frown and risk a glance at him, "Are you mad?" I ask in a little shaken voice.

And here I was supposed to be Dauntless and brave.

"No of course I'm not," dad said as he wrapped his warm arms around me, "Now tell me how your initiation is going. Are you getting through it? What about the fights?" he asked me as he cupped my face affectionately, his dark eyes peering into mine.

My mind goes blank for a brief moment and I stare at him, "Um, yeah we just got through the fights. I won some of mine," I answer him.

He holds my gaze for a long time then nods, "How badly were you hit?" He asked me in concern.

I looked down, "Just my side, but I got kicked there," I replied. His face grows tense as he nods, "Alright. But try to be careful from now on. Now tell me," he smiled at me, "What is your rank?" He led me through the Pit floor and towards a hallway entrance.

"I…I don't know yet, they should let us know in a week or two," I answer noticing that we are in a quieter place now, and that dad guides me to make another turn by pressing his palm to my back.

"Where are we going?" I ask looking around my surroundings.

We finally made it to a corner and turned then dad led me to the very end, "I'm glad that you're doing well," he smiled at me but it quickly flitted away and didn't reach his eyes.

Something was wrong.

"Dad what is it?" I asked nervously. "What's wrong?"

My dad's face looked grave and unreadable, his eyes especially darkened in this lighting.

"Sweetheart, I need to ask you some very important things," he whispers to me as he leans and I'm forced to press my body against the wall.

"There are no cameras here, so I thought we could talk in private," he said in quiet urgency.

"How did y-," he cut me off. How did he know there weren't any cameras here? "I need you to tell me what your aptitude test result was," he lowers his voice and leans his head down in case anyone will here.

I stare at him incredulously, my eyes must look ready to pop, "I…I'm not supposed to say," I say in a slight panicked tone.

My dad makes a noise of disagreement in his throat, "Evangeline you need to tell me," he says, "This is important. There really are no cameras here, no one will know about this talk." He insists with me.

I frowned and slowly shake my head, "Dad…no," I answer firmly, as Ryder's warning comes back to me.

Dad looks so grave now, "Evangeline now," he hisses this out quietly to me, "Trust me."

I flinch and lean my head away, reeling back from him, "I….it was…..I got Erudite," I answer automatically, remembering what Ryder told me he'd enter it as.

His dark eyes hooked my own and I tried to fight the urge to look away – I felt like a child being reproached and chastised.

"What was your result," he repeated the question darkly, "Don't lie to me Evangeline. Just tell me. That's why I brought us to where there would be no cameras."

I hesitate, and feel my dad's presence tearing me down, "I…it was inconclusive," I answered, "But that was a mista-," I'm interrupted again, "The test is never mistaken, it is what it is," he says to me.

I bit the inside of my cheek, "Does anyone else know this result?" dad asked me in a whisper.

I thought on this before answering, "Just…one person. My test administrator," I whispered back.

"What were your results exactly? What faction did you get," he asked me his face changing completely to very bleak. I swallowed, "I got 4 out of 5 factions," I croak in a small and little voice.

He stared at me almost like he didn't recognize me at first, "Which ones?"

I swallow, "Dauntless. Erudite. Abnegation. And Candor."

The look on my dad's face could only be described as astonishment and a touch of disbelief.

Suddenly he moved forward and put both of his hands on my shoulders, and stared directly at me.

Dad stared at me then nodded, "You need to be careful. There's only one more stage left until this initiation is over. Be careful who your friends are. You cannot tell this result to anyone. You must never tell," he said to me in a hushed voice.

I gaze at him and nod slowly, "I know. They'll kill me."

He shook his head furiously, "No. You don't understand, Evangeline. The Erudite, they're working and experimenting on serums, trying to perfect them. It's not that Jeanine hates the Divergent or is scared of them. She wants to study them first before killing them. She needs a Divergent in order to perfect the serum that can control them."

I stare at him dumbfounded – so the Erudite are involved after all. "And….you think that…me transferring here was a bad choice," I whisper quietly.

He only stared at me and sighed, "The Erudite are planning something, and Dauntless are a part of that plan," he warned me.

I frown, but nod, "They're intending to use us as soldiers to hunt down Divergent aren't they," I asked quietly.

I didn't realize that this was the first time I had actually spoken about this, and to my father. Speaking to him actually felt surprisingly good – it felt like a great burden had been lifted from my chest.

My dad nodded gravely, "They'll give the Dauntless the serum in order to control them, but keep in mind that it doesn't work on the Divergent," he said, "And if they find you, they'll report straight to Erudite," he said, "It was Norton's work, and now it's Jeanine's task to take over," he told me quickly.

I nodded slowly and exhale quietly; my dad pulls away then takes my hand and starts leading me out of our spot and through the corridors towards the Pit floor.

"It was great to catch up with you. I'm very proud of you," he told me with a smile, "So tell me about all your new friends," he asks as if the whole conversation we just had never happened.

I almost forget how it is my dad knew where the cameras were.

"Well, there's Bree, she's in the Dauntless born group. She's great." I smile at that, "And there's Zeke, Shauna and Lauren. They're Bree's friends," I explain.

Dad smiles at me, "That's wonderful, I suppose they're all helping you out then?" He asks.

"Yeah a lot. They taught me how to zip line, and I got my first tattoos with them," I grinned broadly.

My dad let out a laugh throwing his head back, "Sounds to me like you're fitting right in." He wrapped his arm around me as I moved to hug him. "Yeah I am." I admit with a smile.

"Well, now tell me about your fellow transfer initiates," dad grinned at me.

"Okay. There's Four," I say his name first, "Then there's Mia, and Martin, they're from Amity. There's 2 boys from Candor, Sean and Carl. Oh there's also another transfer from Erudite," I say, "His name's Eric."

Dad nodded with an interested hum, and I can tell he's about to say something, but is interrupted by a new deep baritone voice, "Well, hello Adam."

I felt my dad's body tense as he turned and glanced at the owner of the voice. It was a tall and lean looking man with dark ashen blond hair that seems to fade at the roots and turn a slight gray color unnoticeable at first glance.

But that's not what draws my attention – it's his chilling cold dark eyes that look vaguely familiar, like I've seen them somewhere before.

My dad makes a noncommittal grunt, and forces a smile, "Hello Matheson."

It dawns on me finally why this man looks so familiar; this is Eric's father, William Matheson – I can see where the resemblance comes from.

And Eric is standing behind him.

I can see him scowling from behind his father's back, underneath the bandages gauze and the bruises.

Eric doesn't meet my gaze, he's looking past his father, almost like he's not even there.

Feeling my stare, Eric's father turns and his eyes pin me in my spot, "Coming here to see your daughter?" Matheson smiles cruelly.

My father gives a tight-lipped smile, "As you can tell," he says with a bland but forced polite tone.

"Yes. I'm here to see my son too," Matheson smirked then glanced over at Eric, who was looking down – I could already tell there was tension between the two. "Well, don't be rude, Eric say hello," Matheson snaps at his son.

Eric lifted his head to my father, the action looking to be movement of a battered and bruised animal, but that was also due to how he appeared. He had split lip, so couldn't smile, but his lips quirked upwards, "Mr. Zedler," he greeted him politely.

My dad stared at him and nodded, "Nice to see you again Eric."

Again? Dad met these two before?

Eric nodded, "Thank you." He said thinly in a hollow voice. He didn't say anymore after that.

Matheson's cold eyes searing into mine, and I still choose to meet his stare firmly, "William Matheson nice to meet you," he holds his hand out to shake mine. I risked a quick glance at my dad, then reach my hand out and shake Matheson's once and briefly. "Likewise Mr. Matheson," I answer courteously.

Matheson smirked at me coolly, "She is a beautiful girl," he complimented.

Dad's body is still tense, "Thank you," he says tightly – with the tension, I can tell that neither one of them like each other. "How is the rest of your family?"

The whole time Eric's quiet, and refusing to look at anyone.

"They're fine," my father answers automatically.

Matheson chuckles, "Your son still such a go-getter," he assumes.

Dad's mouth draws in a tight thin line, "One of the best. I'm very proud of him."

Frowning I speak up, "We all are," I add smoothly, earning a glance from Matheson, and Eric.

I feel a hard pinch at my side, and flinch slightly. My dad was staring at Matheson but I could tell he was the one to pinch me. Eric's staring at me with a frown, but his eyes don't look as cold for some reason like they usually do.

They just look….glazed over. Though with what, I don't know.

Dad grips my arm then begins to lead me away, "Excuse us," he said and pulled me away not even waiting for an answer from the two.

As we walk my dad looks over at me, "William's son is in your initiate class?" He asks me lowly, and I nod, "Yeah."

My dad's face looks stormy after my answer, and now I almost wish I had lied, or not given an answer, "Evangeline, you need to stay away from him. He's one of the ones you can't trust," my dad warns me.

"Dad what do y-," he cut me off, "It's time for me to go," he whispered frantically, "I'll see you soon," he gave me a hug, and left my side.

I watch him leave, then he turns his head to look over his shoulder and smiles at me, "Oh, and have an extra slice of cake for me. Chocolate is the best," he grins at me.

I freeze and stare after him.

I feel a chord strike in me at those words, and suddenly it all clicks for me; dad knew where we were going, he knew where there would be no cameras, he knew they would rank us, and he knew about the fights, and the initiation.

My dad was Dauntless….

I feel my eyes sting slightly at that as a swell of pride burns in my chest – he was Dauntless….

**That Evening**

As I had promised my dad, I had an extra slice of Dauntless cake – the first slice was for myself, the second slice was for my dad.

I slowly cut a piece and bit into it, quietly, thinking this whole day over, then glanced up.

Eric was sitting by himself drinking from his soda – looks like Four hit him really hard in the mouth that it was difficult for him to ingest solid foods for a while. He really was a loner here wasn't he?

Maybe Shauna was right; no one here seemed to like him, and they always seemed to leave him alone.

I mean it seemed like even Four had more friends than Eric – they didn't even invite him to that Dare game that they all played last night, but they invited me to it. Maybe some part of me did feel bad for him…

And maybe that same part….wanted to be a friend to him too.

But his words kept resurfacing in my mind; actually a lot of what he said kept surfacing in my mind. What did he really want? Did he really want to help me? If he wanted an ally he could have someone tougher, stronger. Like Sean, Carl or even Martin, and hell even Mia's great company. But why me?

The other part of me that is bigger doesn't want to waste my time or energy thinking about this. So why the hell am I trying to figure this out, and beat my head against the wall?

As if on cue and being able to feel my eyes burning into him, Eric lifts his head and then his eyes meet mine, and his eyes hook me.

He's not glaring, scowling, glowering, or frowning, he's just staring at me.

His eyes aren't cold or angry or chilling like I would expect them to be – in fact, they look almost blank, empty…hollow.

And just like that there's a stab of guilt and pity that prickles my heart and blooms.

When neither of us look away, that's when his face turns to a glare and he gets up slowly grabs his tray dumps it in the trash and stalks out of the cafeteria.

What the hell is his problem? Is his pride still wounded that I stopped Four from kicking his ass? Maybe the last thing he wants is someone's pity… much less their friendship.

Well, I had enough, if this is how it's going to be then fine, I had better things to do anyways.

Like…like…going to practice my knife throwing, or going to the shooting range and practicing target shots.

Or…or getting a new tattoo. Or I could go down to the Hub.

I haven't been there the entire time I was here…

Leaving the dining hall behind, I ventured through the street of the compound to where I zip lined last time.

I managed to find the Hub, and stepped inside, and walked over to the counter, to see what was good there. Almost all the drinks are alcoholic, but after the Dare game I think I can handle it now.

Leaning my elbows against the counter I look around and see other Dauntless all socializing, laughing, and just having a good time.

Couples, friends, even probably family all getting together; and I'm alone… I haven't really thought that initiation is also the time when most find friends, or new friends, or their boyfriends, girlfriends. I'm pretty sure Martin and Mia are dating, and from what I could see Shauna likes Zeke a little bit more than just a friend.

I see some couples kiss or brush against each other, and I'm here by myself…

I never really thought about getting serious with anyone; I did know what it was like to have a crush on someone, but it didn't always work out for me. I never even had a steady boyfriend, it was always infatuation and most of it was…one-sided.

They had always ended up liking someone else, or ended up already being taken.

Both of which would leave me with nothing but crushing disappointment. Only one boy had really liked me – Ben Milton. A boy from Abnegation, who was at least a few months younger than me but in my school.

Shaking my head slowly I look around myself then off to the side and believe I spot Ray. He's not alone.

There's a girl with him. She looks pretty, but I can't see her well enough.

His companion turns a little, I see that it's Bree – I must be gaping at them so I slowly start to back away.

Ray and Bree are…..together…? Bree was seeing….her Dauntless instructor.

My mind goes back to when I heard Ray excuse himself from myself and Ryder, he said he had a date. Bree was his date!

I glance at them through my hair and see them sharing a kiss. I feel my face heat up and look away; that was why she couldn't help Shauna, but then this meant that Shauna and Lauren didn't know.

…And I wasn't supposed to know or find out either….

Frowning I stare at them for a little while only to come to the realization that…seeing them together…almost looks natural. Surprisingly, I'm okay with that….

_**Note: This chapter is also dedicated to my dad, if you haven't guessed yet, I'm sort of a daddy's girl and that's something I based Eva on, and that she has a close warm relationship with him, so I based their relationship on my own, so Adam Zedler is based on my dad. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and the last one.**_

_**Oh and if you guys like I have a cast in mind for some of the OC characters if you're interested at all. So I figured I can help put a face to a name~ Let me know if you're interested, and I'll post them up~**_


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